Hot For Teacher
by Acirederf
Summary: Yugi is a first year history graduate at Tokyo University. His professor is a gorgeous, spiky-haired Egyptian. His friends consist of a loser who can't pay the rent, a socially awkward genius failing french and a pair of wonderful bazoombas. Puzzleshipping, Puppyshipping, Tendershipping and more. Yugioh AU.
1. A plot bunny emerges

**Warnings: Slash - Puzzleshipping, Puppyshipping and Tendershipping**

**Author Notes:**

**.****Praise and constructive criticism both appreciated! **

**.This chapter is mostly a lead in for the rest on the story, so I urge you to go and read chapter 2 before making your full judgement :D.**

**...Come on, give it a go! Who knows, there might be candy*!**

* * *

His jealously hadn't been instantaneous. On the contrary the first impression he had of his professor had been extremely positive. Despite the man's unusual dress sense that deceivingly suggested eccentricity, his demeanour was calm and controlled. His deep voice and high lexis vocabulary not only illustrated the passion he had for his subject, but also demanded the respect and attention of the class. These were all traits Yugi found admirable and he was glad to have such a competent teacher. So of this, Yugi wasn't jealous.

Even after the first lesson when half the girls started turning up very early and wearing very little, this was still okay. Whilst obviously handsome, what with his dark violet eyes, that contrasted brilliantly with his pale skin and his wild, colourful hair, Yugi had no interest in the girls he attracted. So of this, Yugi wasn't jealous.

Well, not until word of the man extended past the girls in his class and to his best friend and not-so-secret crush - Tea.

"Have you SEEN your history teacher?" Tea grabbed him by the shoulders, her slim fingers tensing around his clavicle. "He's gorgeous!" She gushed, "He's tall, dark and handsome and his clothes," she emphasized the last word, "I've never seen a teacher wear leather before! And he looks just so good in it…" He swallowed, praying silently. 'No matter' he told himself, she wasn't even in his class, it was just a momentary infatuation and besides he had a plan.

Despite the medias promise of the glorious decadence that should await them in high school, both he and Tea had ended their senior year still completely single and with their virginity fully in tact (although not for lack of attention on her part…or for lack of trying on his.) Whilst this had once caused him a certain amount of distress, these were now facts for which Yugi could rejoice. Unwilling to strain the close bond the group shared they had all taken courses in the same region of Japan, and for Yugi, Tea and Ryou - the same university. Yugi saw this as golden opportunity, now that the hungry eyes of the other high school boys who sought Tea's affection were gone he would finally have his chance. He would show her just how much he had matured, no more leather pants and spiked chokers for him. He was a university student now; he would talk about politics and watch foreign films and wear sweaters. Once she had seen the new improved Yugi, Tea would forget all about the so-called 'dashing' Egyptian professor. So of this Yugi decided, he wasn't jealous.

The very next day Yugi walked into his history class to find Tea, front and center of the room clad in little other than go-go boots and a miniskirt

Of this, Yugi was very jealous.

* * *

In all due respect Ryou probably could have done better, Tokyo was home to some of the best universities in Japan and Ryou's grades were substantially higher than those of Tea's or Yugi's. However he was extremely reluctant to give up the few lasting friends he'd made at domino high school. He lived with only his father whose job caused them both to move cities frequently and this had pried his demeanor from shy, to almost completely socially stunted. Whilst Yugi and his gang had remedied this somewhat, he was still incredibly bashful of new people, and loathed the idea of sharing campus with complete strangers_. _Thus he opted to apply at Tokyo Metropolitan University with Yugi and Tea.

Admittedly his interview tactic had been slightly short of desirable. He spoke mostly under his breathe which was hitched and laden with long, uncomfortable pauses. 'It'll be okay' he told himself; after all his high grades should be enough for them to just offer him a place.

This turned out not to be true. Well at least not completely.

They were good enough and the university did offer him a place, only on a slightly less full course than the one he had chosen, an LLB- Dual award in Geography and French. To anyone else it might seem like a fortunate solution. Not for Ryou though.

Ryou _hated _French.

* * *

Joey was broke. Thanks to his deadbeat Dad the choice to go to university hadn't been an easy one. The living cost was monumentally high and his grades were so low that a bursary was out of the question, he had only just scraped getting into the place as it was. Fortunately it seemed that not even the university deans were immune to a bit of the ol' Wheeler charm. He interviewed extremely well and was accepted for a full drama course and an enabler course of applied Math's (he was below the national standard and therefore ineligible to actually attend the university unless he opted to take it.) The university in question was 'Tokyo Royal Collage of Art'. Sure it wasn't as fancy as the one the rest of the guys got into, but it was better option than any kind of job he could expect currently.

Unfortunately the place didn't offer on-campus housing and since he didn't have enough money to get a flat of his own and couldn't share with Yugi, Tea and Ryou (since theirs was on campus) he was currently sharing a flat with Tristan. Tristan had moved with the rest of the gang to keep the bond of friendship and was doing an apprenticeship in small vehicle mechanics. He enjoyed it, but it didn't pay much and as Joeys finances were even more pathetic, Tristan was forking out for more than his fair share. This made Joey feel like a leech, thus he had resolved to find a place just shitty enough that he could afford the rent with the small amount of money he had earned helping out Yugi's Grandpa at the game shop.

His opportunity came when Yugi had received an anonymous letter offering a lucrative deal on rent to any ex-domino student who was prepared to live there. Whilst the other three had found the letter fishy and warned him not to go, Joey Wheeler was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth and figured it must just be another one of lady lucks wonderful gifts for him. That said, even he was surprised when the letter bought him to the top floor of the largest building in town, face-to-face with the door of the pent house suite.

He was even more surprised, when man who opened the door was none less than Joey's old vitriolic class mate - Seto Kaiba.

* * *

**^ think I should make the point that the letter will not be a gaping plot hole. There is a reason why it's anonymous (which you will find out in the next chapter.)**

*******Man candy ;)**  



	2. Taming the dragon

**Author Notes:**

**. I appreciate how shit 'Professor Yami' sounds. Trust me.**

**.Okay, I know Yugi is supposed to be a shinning ball of incorruptible pureness, but I figured he's still a teenage boy. Teenage boys get boners, and have naughty day dreams. I just think he would behave more like a gentleman than most guys that age when in an actual relationship.**

**.Similarly the whole 'Tea's boobs thing' is being played for laughs. She will actually get character development and is fairly important to the plot.**

**.Thankyou to**: **WuNsChKiNd89, Lea, XxRazorgirlxX and Suki-Chan. Honestly, It means so fucking much to me when people review.**

**.I love reviews, they are quite literally my sex and I assure you I shall make Yami table dance for them if I have too.**

**.I think this chapter's better than the first one, that was just kind of a catalyst for the story. Still I hope ya'll didn't find it too awful.**

**. FUCK YOU AUTO-FORMATTING.**

**Puzzleshipping, Puppyshipping and Tendershipping people : )****  
**

* * *

Yugi put a book to his lap, and tried to hide the red blush he felt deepening on his face.

He had a boner.

Unfortunately Yugi had walked into his history class to find Tea, front and centre of the room, clad in little other than a tube top, go-go boots and a miniskirt. This had then caused him to become so distracted, he forgot to enquire what exactly she was doing in the middle of his history class, and instead focused on how good Tea looked, even when dressed astoundingly like a hooker. Or maybe especially when dressed like a hooker. Either way he it seemed that his penis was thoroughly impressed.

Tea winked and beckoned him forward, "I transferred, my course gives me the chance to do an optional humanities diploma." Yugi stared blankly, the hormones in his mind severely prohibiting his train of thought. Tea appeared to notice his lack of attention, so continued in a loader, crosser voice "So I switched from that shitty sociology course I was going to history."

"Oh." He gave a half hearted thumbs up and a weak smile. Beneath the haze of testosterone clouding his mind, Yugi knew he was upset. He knew why Tea was really doing this. She wanted a piece of professor Yami's Egyptian ass.

It wasn't long before said Egyptian ass entered the room and Yugi couldn't help but feel a small tinge of hate towards the man, every girl in the room seemed to stand suddenly to attention - shoulders back and boobs out. Although the direct source of the hate only came when Tea pushed her fantastically rakish legs beneath the table and pulled her chair closer to the desk, aiming her entire body directly into the eye line of Professor Yami. Despite his jealousy, Yugi couldn't help but notice that this created the wonderful effect of what looked to Yugi's mind, like a glorious cleavage sandwich.

His attention waned the rest of that lesson, try hard as he might to keep his attention on the professor, Yugi's gaze eventually swayed back to Tea ('s boobs). The professor on the other hand had apparently not noticed the half naked, oestrogen fuelled hoard in his room, and instead kept his gaze in Yugi's direction, at one point catching his eye and even delivering a subtle smirk.

'Great' Yugi thought, 'either that was directed at Tea and he's totally into her, or I have the most obvious boner face in history.'

* * *

It had taken some time before Kaiba had even let him through the door. But finally, after half an hour of bickering, and a failed attempt by Joey to physically bowl Kaiba over(he had told Joey he _'wanted an ex-domino student, not the class pet'_). Kaiba seemed to decide that it was just not worth the effort and let Joey into the apartment. Unfortunately this created a new problem in that Kaiba only had to take one look at Joey's clothes before recoiling with disgust. They were aside from being cheap and torn, incredibly dirty and it took every ounce of Kaiba's willpower to actually ask Joey to remove his shoes, as opposed to going over to him and yanking them off by force. In the end Joey ended up with not only no shoes, but no socks, jacket or jumper and had to wear his jeans rolled up to the knees. This was all done apparently to avoid getting mud onto the carpet (which Kaiba justified probably cost more than every house Joey had ever lived in put together).

After finding a comfortable seat on an expensive looking leather sofa, Joey turned expectantly to Kaiba, who was stood stiffly at the other end of the room running agitated fingers through his hair.

"Well money-bags, gonna explain your creepy letter." Kaiba decided not to dignify Joey's comment with a response and instead took a deep breath and began.

"I have an issue…" The words were spoken with such reluctance that Joey realised just how seldom Kaiba actually asked others for help "Mokuba."

"Mokuba?"

"Shall I speak slower for you - yes Mokuba" Kaiba took the time to smile at his own condescending remark before continuing. "I am doing a degree in physics at Keio University. Although I can mange this with ease, the fact still remains that during this period I must still retain full control of KaibaCorp. You see without the experience of the older competitors in market, it is integral to KaibaCorps success that I achieve the highest grades possible and continue to reinforce the public's perception of me as a young genius." Joey gave a snort of laughter, which he half heartedly attempted to disguise as a cough when Kaiba glared at him. "This means cutting out a lot of the time I'll be able to spend at home with Mokuba. Mokuba is of course too young to be living alone for such long periods of time, but he detests the idea of being baby sat. My plan was for Yugi to look after him in return for free rent. After all Yugi is whilst naïve, trustworthy and Mokuba has met him and likes him. Hopefully he would see it more as two friends living together, as opposed to a sign that I don't trust him, or consider him immature."

To Kaiba's credit, Joey thought it was a good idea. Although Kaiba had been Yugi's rival ever since he'd beaten him in a video game tournament back in the fifth grade ( a video game tournament held by Kaiba's very own company, the loss was something Kaiba had never quite gotten over), Yugi and Mokuba had still managed to become good friends. Despite the initial feelings of jealousy Mokuba had harboured towards Yugi after his brothers loss, the guy's easy going and forgiving nature had later made them firm friends. Hell, had Yugi not had a comfortable place to live already, it's very likely he would have happily taken the job.

"Okay, I understand that. But why'd ya make the letter anonymous, and why not just address it to Yugi, if he was the guy ya really wanted.?" This was something Joey still didn't understand. After all, Tea and Ryou had no idea who Mokuba was, what if one of them had shown up? What would Kaiba have done then?

"Given our previous history I thought it more likely that Yugi would come along if he did not realise the letter was from me." (After his last defeat Kaiba had made some very unsportsmanlike like comments to Yugi about hobbits.) "Also after doing background checks on his two other room mates, I thought it incredibly unlikely Ryou would try to come as he appears to be painfully social awkward and I also thought there was a strong possibility that if Tea had chosen to come, Yugi would have insisted on coming with her. After having being mugged last year at the dance studio, she may have even asked him to come herself. On the other hand, should I have addressed it directly to him, especially given the nature of what can happen in big cities, it may have appeared suspicious and instead of just say Yugi and Tea turning up-" He paused for breath before he began to explain " Tea who does not know me and holds no animosity towards me." A smirk crossed his lips. " I may have ended up with, well -you." (Joey had been there with Yugi the day of the hobbit comment and hadn't taking it well. Security had had to practically drag him off of Kaiba.)

Content that what he said had been understood, Kaiba resumed his position cross armed and with a cross face leant against the wall. Silence lingered in the air for a moment as Joey tried to figure out exactly what he wanted to say. When nothing came to him, he decided to just be direct.

"Ya'know I could look after Mokuba a few nights a month, I've met the kid before, he likes me-"

"Mokuba's busy enough as it is, I doubt he'd have time to look after a dog." Kaiba cut in rudely. Joey continued unperturbed, his usually fierce temper controlled in that the way he saw it, Kaiba letting him in the house, suggested he was considering the exact same thing."

"Listen rich boy, Mokuba needs a babysitter and I need a cheap place to live. And believe me when I say that Yugi ain't commin'," A gleeful smile of realisation spread across Joey's face. "Ya'know, when ya think about it like that, I'm really your last chance. I'm the only other person of this age except Yugi, that Mokuba even _knows._"

Kaiba's jaw clenched and the next word that came out his mouth, was so said so quietly and so quickly that Joey almost failed to catch it.

"Yes." Joey heard the pain in Kaiba's voice. He decided to savour it.

"Yes what?"

"Yes, you can live here."

* * *

Ryou found the whole situation rather cruel really. He was in a university he was too bright for, surrounded by students he didn't know and couldn't talk too, trapped in a subject he hated and was failing.

And now they wanted to get him a tutor.

Poor Ryou protested as vehemently as his shy demeanour would allow him '_No I really don't think that's necessary'_ _'Maybe I just need to try harder' - _none of it worked, it was all too polite and wavering and came out sounding rather false. Thus, he was assigned a tutor. Bakura, she explained to him was a third year, with a natural grasp of French, who had apparently turned in several important essays late . The idea was that he would tutor Ryou to make up for the point deduction he had received in his previous year and in return get Ryou good enough at French to pass the course.

Now Ryou already didn't like the idea, but after class that day, when he was approached by the chauvinistic, alpha-male , man pig - Bandit Keith, he knew something must be seriously Keith was an America transfer student, who had been learning the French language since middle school and took great delight in Ryou's struggles. He often sniggered loudly and obviously for the rest of the class to hear and made cruel comments about Ryou's slightly androgynous appearance.

"Good luck man, that Bakura kids a fucking psycho." Keith's words rang with false pity, as he pattered Ryou on the back in a mock-fraternal manner. "What do you mean?" Ryou said, his lacking social skills reducing his words to a smothered whisper.

"You don't know!" Keith faked astonishment. "he sits alone in the cafeteria and threatens anyone that come near him. Fuck - " He laughed openly this time "I've heard he eats raw meat." Ryou's eyes widened with fear. "And -" he seemed to take special delight his next words "Sid was telling me that he's known as a massive fag." The last part was said almost dangerously, with Keith's entire face pressed threateningly in Ryou's. "Although that wont be a problem for you, will it pretty boy?" At that Keith laughed and began to walk away, although not before turning around to give Ryou one last spiteful smile.

Unfortunately for Keith, as Ryou was in fact gay, the last of his words had had very little effect. As a matter of fact Keith's whole dramatized performance had only managed to inform him, that Keith assumed all men were as homophobic as he was and thereby making the assumption that spending time with a 'fag' would very much disconcert Ryou. This created a wonderful scenario in that Joey, who being a close friend of Ryou's (and who obviously knew about Ryou's sexual orientation, which whilst he had never been overtly vocal about, was fairly common knowledge back at domino high ,) would now come into the school and flirt shamelessly with Bandit Keith. Joey and Tristan had actually wanted to do something about him for quite some time, (not only had he been picking on Ryou, but Keith had also thrown a few wayward comments about Yugi's height and Tea's tits. Big fucking mistake.) This looked like the perfect solution, if anything this would provide an even better way of getting revenge, than the ass kicking that had previously been suggested. It wouldn't be hard to do either. Bandit Keith spent most of his time at the Gym and liked to take nice long showers, and Joey, the master of being unsubtle, would know just how to take full advantage of this. Had it not been for the rest of the conversation, Ryou might have actually been very much cheered up by this little nugget of information.

Unfortunately, Ryou was still concerned about how Bandit Keith, Mr - wears a flag on his head, steroid taking, could crush Ryou's entire body with one hand' - mcbully, could consider anyone a psychopath. Whilst not invincible, Keith's male bravado had prevented him previously from admitting, or even suggesting that he could ever be intimidated by anyone. Moreover, the fact that Keith would actually meet him after class just to taunt him about the guy, said a lot in itself. And whilst he had actually found Keith's last comment rather funny, linguistically-gifted, raw meat eating, psychopaths, were just not his type. After careful consideration Ryou realised there was only one word to describe his present situation.

"Fan-fucking-tastic"

* * *

**Author Note:**

**. I figured Keith would get a kick out of being a cunt. Oh and that thing Joey's going to do, yea my friend did it to some douche that was being homophobic to one of my gay friends. You'll see the results we got in the next few chapters.**

**. Should let you all know that I'm dyslexic and whilst I've checked the spelling and grammar several times, feel free to point out any mistakes I've made so I can fix them :)**

**.eguioeiwseuighwiueghw Kaiba's bit was so hard to write, I'm sorry if it came out shit**

…**perhaps you should review and complain about it ;)**


	3. Diary of a Wimpy Duelist

**Characterisation is boring, what about a shag on the teachers desk?**

* * *

It took a few weeks and some vigorous masturbation, but once Yugi had his hormones under control, he began to love professor Yami's lessons. Truth be told Yugi was something of a history nerd. His Grandfather, Solomon Muto was an archaeologist who specialised in Egyptology and as a child Yugi had delighted in hearing all his stories about the ancient land of Egypt. Stories of the Gods and of the great battle between Horus and Seth, of the Romance between Cleopatra and Caesar, and of course his favourite story - the story of the seven millennium items, the thief king and the nameless Pharaoh who was said to have saved the world.

This arsenal of knowledge had provided him with a solid grounding for the history course he was taking, in particular professor Yami's section, which actually focused around Ancient Egypt. Although he found, to his surprise, that it wasn't just his understanding of the course that made the lessons so brilliant.

It was professor Yami himself.

Yugi had never been an exceptional student. Average grades, quiet, and hell - half of his teachers barely even knew his name (even with the freaky hair style and bondage getup). He supposed he had always been just a bit too normal. After all, he wasn't sexy like Duke, or tough like Tristan, nor was he a genius like Kaiba, or a plucky underachiever like Joey. Aside from being just a little strange and a bit overly-obsessed with puzzles and games, Yugi was just an everyday nice guy. Because of this his teachers had basically left him alone, fated to be eternally unexceptional.

Not Yami though. There was something different in the professors attitude towards Yugi, there was encouragement and reassurance, in a way he had never experienced before. It had first come to his notice after one of the classes independent essays (the essay was to be on a subject of their choice, Yugi had chosen Ancient Egyptian burial customs.) Whilst Yugi had gained a relatively good mark, the professor had still requested to see him after class.

'Don't doubt yourself Yugi," The professor began, his voice kind.

"Huh?" Yugi responded eloquently, he had half expected to be told off about the amount of class time he spent ogling Tea('s breasts).

"In your work, all the information is good and accurate, as was your paragraph on the context of the time," He gave a gentle smile. "But you seem reluctant to put forward your own opinions on the sources, although it was clear from the writing, that you clearly saw the bias in source B."

"I asked Tea and Rex, they said that it was irrelevant…" Yugi trailed off, shrugging his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Yugi, you need to believe in yourself more, your essay had great potential. In fact all of your essays have. It almost feels to me like you're holding back," The professors voice was stern, although still more encouraging than unkind. "Is there any particular reason why you are doing this?" Yugi had to force back a nervous blush, as he tried to explain himself.

"It's just I've never been that great at essays and…"

"Yugi, listen to me. You have so much potential to improve, but you need to believe in yourself. His voice took a quieter, smoother tone and he beckoned Yugi closer " I believe in you and I wouldn't believe in someone If I didn't think they had the potential to be great."

"…you really mean that?" Professor Yami looked at him, his eyes growing gentle as he rested his hand on Yugi's shoulder.

"Of course I do." The professor smiled, and the warmth from his eyes gave the rest of his face a warm glow .

Yugi however, just blushed furiously.

* * *

Joey really liked Mokuba. Unlike his brother who found the social norms of a teenager _'A waste of my valuable time,' _Mokuba was happy to sit around the mansion, just eating junk food, playing video games and watching 'Girls of the Playboy Mansion.'

Over the weeks they began to get closer and even started to open up too each other a little. Joey told Mokuba about his asshole of a dad and about his sister, Serenity who at the tender age of sixteen was already volunteering down at Domino City mental hospital, in preparation of becoming a psychiatric nurse.

"Wow!" Said Mokuba, as Joey brought out a picture of Serenity from his wallet to show him, "You know, I think I might be going a little crazy…!" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, earning himself a dead arm as Joey pinned him down to the sofa, forcing him to swear chastity.

After the two boys had finished wrestling, Mokuba revealed that he was actually having problems in this particular area. Although the boy avoided the subject of family problems, he was quite happy to open up and share with Joey his secret crush. Her name was Rebecca, a genius who still carried around a stuffed animal and even spoke to it from time to time. Joey thought she sounded pretty weird, although Mokuba seemed smitten, (but hey, thought Joey, with a nutcase like Kaiba in your life, talking teddy bears must seem fairly standard.)

Apparently Mokuba hadn't even worked up the courage to talk to the girl and so being the charming lady-killer he was, Joey felt it only right that he give Mokuba some manly advice.

"The thing ya gotta know is, girls _love_ bad boys." Joey winked at Mokuba, as if this in some way enhanced his point.

"Bad Boys?"

"Ya'know like James Dean, Pete Doughty, Fonzy…" Joey trailed off, satisfied to watch Mokuba nod in reverence at his knowledge of the fair sex. It wasn't so much that Joey actually knew a great deal about girls. Sure he'd had a shag or two back in his gang days, but that had always been a thing of status more than an actual relationship and therefore hardly romantic.

Unfortunately Mokuba was sharing the mansion with only his brother for company,

who still acted as though he thought all girls had cooties. As you can imagine, this meant that Mokuba's knowledge on how to deal with girl matters was minimal and therefore Joey's vague understanding of females seemed to him like a vagina guru.

"How do I become a bad boy?" Mokuba asked eagerly

"Be aloof, play the field, do something rebellious" Joey laughed, "Hell your rich, find out what type of guys she likes and try to replicate that. Ya have the money to do it!"

"Like what?"

"Say she likes Twilight, buy some body glitter and look constipated." Tristan had actually tried the last one. It worked.

"I don't think my brother would…" Mokuba sounded incredibly doubtful. Surprisingly it wasn't because of how superficial Joey's advise was, changing his entire personality to get a girl would be easy, he'd being doing the same thing for Seto and his company for years. Hell, part of him wanted to do it just to make Joey proud. He just wasn't so sure that any girl, no matter how awesome, was worth an ear-full from his brother.

"Brother schmother, you wanna date this girl?"

"Yes."

"Then do exactly as I tell you."

* * *

Later that evening, Joey feeling like the all-knowing-guru of advice (and having downed several Bacardi Breezers from the mini fridge) decided to try and bestow his newfound gift of giving romantic advice upon the elder Kaiba, who was currently locked away in his room doing work. Now, to give you a view of just how drunk Joey was, I should tell you that earlier that evening he had been watching Jersey Shore and proclaimed that he finally understood where Snooki was coming from.

Before he could even stand up to find said Kaiba, Joey had removed his shoes, he felt it was their fault that gravity had suddenly become his worst enemy and not the nine units of alcohol currently swimming around his blood vessels. After about 20 minutes of falling and giggling, Joey managed to stand just upright enough to begin his quest to Kaiba's room. He wandered around knocking things over and telling them to 'shhhh', before successfully stumbling to the door. He pushed his arm against it in a wild flailing motion and began to get very angry when it did not budge.

"Think yarrr so clever don't you." The door didn't respond.

"Oh! Ya gonna give me the silent treatment," Once again the door didn't respond, leaving Joey just to stare for a few moments, before taking another large swig of the drink in his hand and proclaiming. "I kin handle yew...I cin hanle ip...I ccurr, urrpp, eerrr…"

He collapsed, his unconscious body, doubling as meaty door stop for Kaiba's bedroom.

* * *

Bakura was fucking terrifying.

He was tall and muscular, with high cheek bones and a cruel mouth. His eyes were sharp and long, with a darkness that consumed his pupils leaving only two holes of black oblivion. All of this was framed by a muss of heavy, white hair, that hung in a loose ponytail down to his mid back.

Yugi had been the one to let Bakura in. He had appeared early whilst Ryou was still showering. Being the anal-retentive freak he was, Ryou's showers could last for hours on end and eventually Yugi had to go find Ryou to tell him that his tutor had already arrived. This unfortunately did not have the intended effect and Ryou ended spending another half an hour in the shower panicking about what to say or do. As nothing came to him, he decided instead to focus on just not passing out.

When he finally entered the room, his soaking wet body clad in a nothing but a little blue towel (his bedroom was at the opposite end of house to the shower), he found Yugi smiling uncomfortably at an unresponsive man, who was sat silently sipping coffee at the breakfast table. At first Ryou tried to sneak past them, feeling that his confidence would be greatly enhanced by a dry pair of boxer shorts. Unfortunately, Yugi obviously felt uncomfortable with the older mans presence and decided to ruin this plan by drawing attention to him.

"Ryou! There you are." He beckoned him forward enthusiastically, "Ryou, this is Bakura." Unsure of exactly how to react to this stranger, who on first acquaintance had already had the pleasure of observing him in partial nudity, Ryou decided to just step forward.

Or at least he attempted to do so.

Having put so much focus on keeping his towel tightly shut, and in the process giving himself very little walking space, Ryou tripped over himself and fell promptly to the ground, right at Bakura's feet. Lady luck must have been routing for him a least slightly, as the towel fell with him and landed strategically placed on his 'never-regions.'

Bakura stood and strode up to him, looming over his body and Ryou could feel the heat of Bakura's eyes linger upon him. "Well what do we have here?" Ryou felt his face contort in an attempt at a response, although nothing actually came out.

Maybe lady luck was just trying to get him laid.

Yugi, during this awkward silence took it upon himself to grab a pair of boxers for Ryou, which he fed to him beneath the towel. Having his penis tucked firmly away, Ryou gained a little confidence and eventually managed the reply "I'm your student."

"That much I gathered." Came the wry response

"We were supposed to do the lesson, well later." Ryou made another brave attempt at speech , although he was still only barely audible. Bakura stared at him for a few moments, the silence in the room thickening with each passing second.

Yugi, sensing the tension in the room, decided that now would be a good time to leave. He was supposed to have met Tea for coffee thirty minutes ago anyway, well forty minutes ago, the first ten minutes had been on purpose. Earlier that week Tristan had informed Yugi that Tea was even sexier when she was angry and Yugi fully intended to experience this first hand.

"Your friend makes terrible small talk." Bakura said after Yugi had shut the door, "although we did managed to establish that both him and…" He thought for a second "Tea? I think that was her name? Anyway, Tea and Yugi are both fortunate enough as to own their own cars." He made a sound of disbelief , "Yea, there's no way in hell I'm luggin my ass around town, forking out money for the bus, when your lazy-ass could be getting a lift."

"Oh." Ryou just looked at him, moving his face just enough to show that he understood what the other man was saying.

"Anyway, the real reason I came down here today, is cause I got some business on this side of town and thought I should drop in to let you know that due to said business, the lessons cancelled for today." He smirked to himself. "Wouldn't want to get in the way of your clearly avid social life." Ryou gave another blank stare, fortunately Bakura just shrugged at this lack of response and continued "The little guy gave me your number so next time I can't make it I'll just call you and I'll text you mine later so you can do the same."

All of this was followed by a long silence, the two white haired boys just staring at each other, until something seemed to click in Bakura's mind and his eyes widened in realisation.

"This whole 'scared shitless' thing you've got going on, that wouldn't happen to be because of any dirty little rumours you've heard about me, would it?" Ryou decided not to respond. On the one hand Bandit Keith had made the guy appear completely psychotic, on the other hand Ryou was so shy that the reason he wouldn't hurt a fly, was mostly because he'd be afraid of it and therefore even without what Bandit Keith had said, he would have probably responded in the same way.

Not knowing this, Bakura took Ryou's lack of response as an answer of 'yes' to his question. This prompted a devious smile to form on the elder white haired mans face as he continued. "Well then, what you really need to know is that..," He trailed off intentionally, taking the time to lean down until Ryou could feel Bakura's breathe hot against the crook of his neck. "…it's all true."

Bakura was fucking terrifying.

And Ryou wanted to screw his brains out.

* * *

**Author Notes: **

**.Would you guys like to see a few chapters done following the other characters?**

**.If anyone fancies being my Beta-Reader they will be given the status of God. I found some typos in the last chapter that made me want to heave XD**

**.Having just finished planning the very last chapter, I feel it is my duty to inform you that this fic is going to go in a very weird direction.**

**.So I've changed Rebecca's age a little, it's all for a good cause. :)**

**.Once again - FUCK YOU AUTO-FORMATTING**

**Every time you review Kaiba gets a boner.**

**( ^ and Joey gets a nosebleed.)**


	4. One Duel Over the Cuckoo's Nest

**Thank you to: The sweetheart, Anon, Suki-Chan, Alley of the Labyrinth, Megan and Amaris the Dark Mage - Kaiba's boner twas hard and oh did Joey cheer. **

**.So my rational is that Marik and his Yami are inheritably different from the others in that Yami Bakura and Ryou (I've been lazy with the names, I know. But hey, it's an AU) and Yami and Yugi are different people, whereas Yami Marik is part of Marik, the dark part. Thus how shit in this fic is going to work. **

**.A big thank you to 'THE ALPHA CHIVES' who beta-read a lot of this chapter. **

**.I'll be changing the order of the sections per chapter, depending on what part I wrote first and the part I like the most. **

**.This is a long motherfucker, so strap in and enjoy the ride!**

* * *

"Wake up mutt!"

Kaiba had spent the last half an hour trying to rouse Joey from the floor. He had tried to awaken him by picking him up and shaking him, although this had just resulted in Joey throwing a few bad punches into the air and nuzzling his head deeper and deeper into Kaiba's chest, which was currently bare due to the heat within the CEO's bedroom.

"This monkeys got some small nipples." Joey declared loudly, stroking Kaiba's chest in his drunken haze. "Now these," Joey pointed to himself proudly "these are MANS nipples." Kaiba twitched in anger. His nipples were far superior to the blondes, who at some point whilst gurgling on the floor outside Kaiba's room had managed to remove all his clothes, exempting his underpants (which were blue and adorned with little dancing bananas, surrounding big black letters that read "flavoured for your convenience").

Kaiba was so pissed off with the situation that he was just about to throw Joey back onto the floor and let him spend the night there, but as sods law would dictate (_either that or a yaoi fangirl with a keyboard_) the worst happened and Joey was sick.

Joey was sick fucking everywhere.

Had it not been for the unholy hour of the night, Kaiba would have called Roland to sort out the disgruntled blonde, who had to be carried to the bathroom and was currently led against the door, now fully naked and attempting to wipe sick off of himself using his underpants.

"," repeated Kaiba in a low dangerous voice as he ran out to spread one of his clean, white, KaibaCorp branded towels, over the mutts putrid sick. Kaiba clenched his fists looking down at the splay of towels covering the vomit; room service would have to deal with that in the morning, until then he had better go clean up the idiot, lest any more sick be spread.

The bathroom was immense; it was divided into two separate rooms, one containing the toilet and sink, whilst the other was mostly consumed by the bath, which was large and built of heavy black marble that attached two bulky golden taps. Kaiba turned on the hot tap and poured an entire bottle of _'Blue-eyes bubble magic' _bubble bath into it. Due to the tubs generous size it was filling up relatively slowly and so Kaiba took this time to drag Joey over to the toilet and position his face in the direct firing line of the bowl. He then ran to the kitchen, grabbed some anti-bacterial spray and coated the bathroom floor with it, reluctantly using Joey's underpants as a flannel, steering them with his foot to wipe up any remaining sick.

"Whushu doin Kaiba?" Joey complained once the bath was done and Kaiba began the seemingly impossible task of attempting to guide Joey into it.

"How could I forget? Dogs hate baths." He cultivated all his anger into a one long, contemptuous sneer,

"Why I oughta -" Joey fell back to sleep before he could finish. Kaiba made a noise of disgust as he finally succeeded in lowering Joey's body into the warm, soapy water.

Having become slightly more immune to the improbability of the situation, Kaiba began to focus on washing Joey. He had started the job reverently with his eyes slightly averted, although as he continued he became increasingly aware of Joey's body.

As idiotic as he might have been, the blonde wasn't completely unattractive. Kaiba had always known this, but until now he had never focused on exactly why that was. Now Kaiba found he could focus on little else.

Joey had a masculine face, with a strong jaw line, high cheek bones and well defined lips that pursed slightly in his slumber. Kaiba also noted that Joey's body was far more muscular than his own. It was lean and toned, with a few visible white scars that marred his otherwise fluid skin. Although Kaiba knew little of Joeys past, Mokuba had mentioned in passing that Joey used to fight in gangs - Kaiba imagined the scars were a result of this. He allowed his fingers to trace them, letting the warm water guide his hand, running it across Joey's soapy body until he reached the mans neck. He then raised his ran his hands slowly up to Joey's blonde thicket of hair, lingering there for a single moment, before reaching to the basin and filling them up with shampoo. He rubbed it through gently, noting to himself how evasively smooth the hair was to touch and mused quietly to himself about how Joey felt so much softer then he looked.

It stayed like this for a long time, with Kaiba silently washing Joey, who moved only occasionally grumbling absentmindedly in his sleep. He watched Joey as he moved his hands up and down the blonde's lithe body, until he was satisfied that every last inch of the man had been thoroughly cleansed.

Joey semiconsciously groaned as Kaiba lifted him up by his arms out of the bath. He sat him down on the carpet, which was made of some kind of white fur and reached for a towel, before beginning to gently dry Joey's hair. After this was done, he turned Joey's face to his and gazed upon it for just a second, before wrapping the blonde in the towel and guiding him to his rightful bedroom.

He lay Joey gently in the bed, watching him for only a instant before scowling to himself and slamming the door.

"Damn mutt,"

Kaiba went to take a cold shower.

* * *

Good looks and booming voice aside, Yami found it just as hard to retain friends as he did to make them. He judged harshly and was acutely aware of others faults, which he took a guilty pleasure in pointing out, all whilst remaining too full of pride to realise his own downfalls (the worst of which ironically was his pride.)

That wasn't to say he didn't have any friends. Mana and Mahad had been his best friends since they were children and he treasured them dearly. Mahad was serious and sensible and although he could be a little uptight, had grown to be an incredibly loyal companion, Mana on the other hand was irresponsible and foolhardy, but she was also compassionate and had a very kind heart. Whilst they were all very close, Mana and Mahad still had what you might call a conflict of personalities.

She would devise some zany scheme put together at the last minute to solve a problem she had herself created, usually through laziness (one memorable instance was dubbed by Yami operation: Crazy Plan! …It involved a deck of cards, some Wrigley's mint gum and a D cup bra). This usually resulted in a cry of 'dear God' from Mahad, who would instantly try to moralise Mana on the virtues of hard work, over last minute procrastination; resulting in Mana putting her fingers in her ears and pretending not to hear him, this inevitably ended up with them wrestling on the floor.

Leaving Yami to point out the obvious sexual tension between them.

Over the years it had become apparent to him that Mahad and Mana were completely in love with each other. It was sad; neither could admit this to the other. When asked Mahad would mumble that Mana was 'immature and loud' and Mana would counter that Mahad was 'a self-righteous prick with a pole up his ass.' Despite this Yami caught their secret smiles and touches, they loved each other. Everyone could see it… except them.

Unfortunately he rarely got to tease them about this anymore, because the two of them had essentially run off to join the circus. They worked under the stage names 'The Dark Magician' and 'The Dark Magician Girl,' and after winning a magical show down against Arkana (The famous master of black magicians) and his wife Catherine, using their renown magical hats trick, they had actually become quite famous. They now toured worldwide, happy and rich, and Yami was truly glad for them, although this didn't stop him from being incredibly miserable that he rarely got see them anymore.

With his best friends gone there was no one Yami could really talk to. All the other professors were either far older than he was, or unbearably foolish (the dance teacher in particular had the perfect combination of Yami's pet hates, Johnny Steps was his full name, an obnoxious wanker if there ever was one.) And whilst he could tolerate most of his students, they were by and large still awkward teenagers, well intentioned and self-conscious, hot balls of hormones and bravado.

The only person that really stood out within any of his classes was a little blonde guy named Yugi. Yugi was at a first glance unexceptional, he was quiet and shy and rarely answered any questions in class, he also had very obvious a crush on one of Yami's other students - Tea Gardener. Yugi stared at her often, he always responded to everything she did in a way that was far more excitable and childish than was typical of his usual demeanour. When he spoke to her the self-conscious part of his personality faded into a kind of overcompensating manic excitement. (He also had a healthy appreciation for her breasts, as did most of the other males he taught, whom were all fully appreciative of the wide selection of jiggilies on display.)

She seemed a nice girl Yami supposed. Her essays suggested that she was intelligent and thoughtful and from what he had seen she was also very kind towards Yugi. Unfortunately the time he had spent with Mana and Mahad had forced him to make the very sad comparison, in that the way that Mahad and Mana acted towards each other was inherently different from that of Tea and Yugi. Tea didn't look at Yugi the same way Yugi looked at her. When Yugi smiled at Tea it was a special smile, a small, secretive smile meant just for her. She never returned it. Of course she smiled back, but it was never in the way that he wanted her too.

This observation is the reason he first took notice of the boy, although it wasn't what made him consider Yugi exceptional. Indeed, as his nature dictated the first things Yami noticed about Yugi were his faults. Unlike Yami, who was proud, perhaps to the point of folly; Yugi was modest to the point of being self-depreciating, with very little self belief.

Yami mused that these faults were not uncommon. No, what was inherently different was in the way that Yugi tried to overcome his faults. The boy was genuine, he was friendly and empathetic and when he believed in something strongly, any lack of self belief dematerialised, but without pride or vanity. Whilst this transformation only occurred very rarely Yami had been fortunate enough to witness it first hand.

It was about fifteen minutes before class and he had been preparing the interactive whiteboard ready for his lecture, when he had heard a small voice coming from outside.

"I know you have to stand up to bullies. But not like this." Yami instantly recognised the indignant voice as Yugi's, who was currently leant against the classroom door with what looked like a mobile pressed to his ear. Yami paced closer to the door to eavesdrop. "Teach Keith a lesson, yes. But don't teach him one that will get him coming back after you." He paused "Yes I know what he said about Tea!"

Yami laughed, he had overheard in a previous lesson that Keith had asked Tea 'Was your dad a thief? Because it looks like he stole two fine hams and stuck them to your chest.' One of the guys sat next to Tea had overheard and had burst out laughing right in the middle of his class.

"No, let Joey handle Keith. He might be a good person underneath," A wary sigh made its way down the other side of the telephone, "I know Tristan, but you're going have to trust me. Please… He might change. People can change." There was a long pause before Yugi muttered softly –

"You did."

What made Yugi so different, was that watching the boy talk made Yami want to change, made him want to forgive.

Yugi made him _afraid._

* * *

The room was too sanitary and it made Bakura uncomfortable. The unbearable brightness was intensified by the clean white walls that made the small room appear unnervingly sterile. A tidy little prison. Bakura tentatively sat down on the cold metal chair, which finished inconveniently below his lower back, forcing him to sit up straighter than what would normally be comfortable.

This was the second time Bakura had met the nurse. She was sweet looking, with a pretty face and dark red hair which was held back in a tidy ponytail. She had a kind voice and gentle mannerisms and if one was to make a first impression they would likely summarise her entire demeanour as perfectly innocent.

But as everyone knows, first impressions are deceiving.

This 'innocent' little nurse dealt in what you might call black market medicine. Usually this is the illegal prescription or supplying of drugs to addicts (usually morphine to heroin junkies). Bakura's request was a little different; he had asked online for a medical professional that would be willing to treat a patient outside of registered medical practices. Given the money in this type of thing Bakura's posts had received an unsurprisingly large amount of interest, but this innocent little redhead had been revealed to be by far his best option. For one thing she was training in the field of mental illness and as a trainee she would have flexible hours; it also helped that her gentle demeanour made it difficult to suspect her of anything unsavoury. But most importantly this girl - Serenity Wheeler, was willing to provide all the medicine and treatment Bakura needed for absolutely nothing. She would treat Marik for free.

Their first meeting had just been a formality, he spoke in brief about his expectations, she introduced herself and they went their separate ways. Bakura had mostly used it as a trial to be sure that Miss Wheeler was not an undercover policeman trying to track down dealers and smackheads (several of the emails from other possible candidates had appeared to be of this lineage). Therefore it had just been a precautionary arrangement in a coffee shop.

This second meeting was inherently different. They had met inside the mental hospital where she trained, under the rouse that Bakura was the nurses distant relative 'Akefia'. This was the first time they had discussed in detail the real reason Bakura required her services. This was the first time they had discussed Marik.

Marik was disturbed. As a child he had been severely abused, forced to undergo a painful blood ritual at the hands of his father; who had carved passages of an ancient Egyptian text into his back with a hot knife. The infection that had occurred afterwards and the vast amount of blood Marik lost, left his back mutilated by putrid scabs, that his father would then pick and peel over and over again, until he was sure that they would scar. Marik had tried to deal to with this trauma through the creation of an imaginary friend. This imaginary friend acted as a sort of second Marik, when his father had first drawn the puss from his wounds, Marik had pretended that it was the other personality that felt the pain . Unfortunately as the abuse grew worse and more frequent, this other-self he created grew stronger, it's ceased to remain just a figment of Marik's imagination and gained a personality of it's own. A personality that didn't fear pain, but revelled in it and took pleasure from his fathers cruelty, enjoying each painful incise. It even started communicating with Marik, it whispered things to him, twisted, cruel things and wouldn't stop until the real Marik carried them out or forced himself unconscious. Marik had called this other personality Yami Marik - Dark Marik. This other him grew in power until one day it became strong enough to take him over; at first Marik would black out and wake up covered in small cuts and bruises, then blood, until one day he awoke to find his fathers body lead still in front of him.

He awoke to find his father dead.

But Marik wasn't bad, he was just broken. He still tried desperately to suppress this other self and did so under the care of his brother and sister quite successfully. Odion had turned eighteen before his fathers death (which had been disguised to look like a freak accident), and had taken on the role as the sole career of Marik and Ishizu. With the money left to them by their parents, he had bought a cheap flat and paid for several years of intensive home-schooled education for his siblings, whilst getting himself a job as custodian at the local museum. Once he was satisfied with Ishizu and Marik's educational progress, he had allowed them to attend a normal school. It was at this school that Marik had first met Bakura.

They had become friends mostly by the virtue that both of them were outcasts. Marik who had been home schooled all his life (illegally before his fathers death), had developed very poor social skills, either coming across to his peers as creepy and over earnest, or just abrupt and offensive, whereas Bakura was feared by most of the student body due to his penchant for raw meat and an unnervingly large amount of knowledge on the burial customs of different ancient cultures. Due to the other students unanimous dislike for them, they were often grouped together for class work, projects and despite some initial caution from both of them, surprisingly found that they enjoyed each others company.

Over time the two became closer and Bakura was invited back to Marik's house to meet his family and was eventually told the horrors of Marik's past. Bakura who by this time cared deeply about his friend, vowed to look after Marik in any way he could and when Marik gained the grades necessary to go to university Bakura decided that he would go with him . Odion had not wished Marik to go to university, unwilling to let his brother out of his care, however he trusted Bakura and so conceded to let him to go. It's funny, Marik had made Bakura a better person, he gave him something to care about. Someone to care about.

Unfortunately Marik had recently reported the re-emergence of the other-him, after some dark whisperings in the middle of the night. Thus Bakura had sought to get him some professional medical treatment, which Marik had consented to providing that it was done outside of registered medical practice. Odion had seen a doctor about Marik's case previously and when they suggested getting him in for testing inspection, with the possibility of internal intensive care his brother had rejected it and never returned. After all those years of pain, Marik's greatest fear was of being alone.

This is where Serenity came in.

Serenity did not use the usual solemn tone of respect that most doctors and nurses adorn when discussing the mentally ill. As a matter of fact her questions to Bakura were asked with an unnerving amount of enthusiasm and an unwavering focus on what bought about the 'other-him. Was he bought about by pain or pleasure? She wanted to know how he sounded and how his mannerisms and his body posture changed during the transformation. Bakura noted uneasily at how her eyes transformed when she spoke of it, her irises dilated consuming all the previous softness and replacing it with a hungry anticipation.

Bakura disliked Serenity's attitude towards his friend, however he kept quiet about it for Marik's sake. He had discussed with her that he would always be present when she treated him and therefore whilst disconcerted by her attitude towards Marik, was not afraid that any harm would come to him.

Before the meeting Bakura had dropped in on his tutee Ryou, to inform him that he would not be attending their scheduled tuition session. Bakura was not unhappy about this, as he had agreed to the arrangement with extreme reluctance in the first place. He was already dirt poor, struggling to care for Marik and now he had to spend his hours tutoring some pretty-boy, white-haired squirt. What was the guy anyway, a fucking mute? Still, Bakura decided that maybe he could have a little fun with the kid.

After all the guy totally had a semi whilst Bakura was talking to him.

* * *

.**I hope the Yami stuff wasn't a pile of wank, it may well have been.**

**.There shall be so many pairings in this fic. So many. And you shall applaud with tears streaming down your face at the beauty of some of them…**

… **and at the utter crack of others.**

**Review and Bakura will pour chocolate on his abs. Slowly. **


	5. The Good, the Bad and the Kaiba's

**Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it's a plot that's going somewhere (for the first time in this story !)**

**Explain yourself young lady (Or why I feel the shit I write is justified): **

**.So as Mokuba's going through puberty in this story, I figured that whilst he'd still be the same good-natured guy, he would also have a bit of male bravado going on.**

**.Kaiba is fucking insane. I believe whole heartedly he would have trained himself in a martial art and gotten pretty dam good at it. This isn't to say he could necessarily beat Joey in a full fledged fight (after all Joey was in street gangs), but if he caught him off guard I feel that he could gain the upper hand. I also feel that the wellbeing of Mokuba is one of the few things that could make Kaiba lose his temper.**

**.We do not know what is going on under Serenity's pretty face. This is my interpretation. (I feel I should say that I like her as a character and that this isn't bashing, just an idea I had.)**

**. As my fanfiction is an AU, this Bakura has obviously had very different experiences to his in-show self, so whilst I still want him to maintain important aspects of his personality, I feel there would be a few major differences. Mostly he'd be less of a cunt. **

**.The American/English TV references? Willing suspension of disbelief.**

* * *

Fuck. Fuck - fuckity- fuck, fuck, fuck.

Fuck.

Whilst Joey wasn't especially familiar with Kaiba's handwriting, every scrawled letter on the page seemed to have been forged with a promise of death. Kaiba had left him an angry note with a demand that Joey walk to Kaiba's university likely to get shouted at, or forced into an apology. Normally Joey wouldn't even consider doing such a thing. He looked reluctantly at the bleach faded carpet and bitterly recalled his tongue tasting like a sick flavoured popsicle that morning, he felt ashamed.

_He felt like his Dad. _

Dismally making the decision to confront Kaiba, Joey wallowed in self loathing for a few hours, dressing and showing slowly, his usual considerable appetite smothered by a queasy shift of stomach acid and a few vodka flavoured burps that brought with them the painful recollection of sick. His pity parade was only interrupted when he felt a heavy vibration against his leg from the phone Kaiba had reluctantly gifted him at the start of his job. Blurry eyed he scanned the screen, unable to read the letters in his head, which was currently limping on figurative crutches, he had to resort to reading the name out load.

"Mo-ker- bur," he sounded, his pronunciation a struggle at best. He clicked the little red post box and continued to read the message.

'_Seto's going to murder you.'_

Turns out Joey's manly advice has gotten Mokuba into a little trouble at school.

* * *

Kaiba picked him up forcefully by the scruff of his coat and bound him to the wall, snarling. Despite his skinny physique Kaiba had a strong grip and a powerful hold. Joey reasoned that Kaiba, being the paranoid freak he was must have trained in some fancy martial art in case a violent situation arose, he probably had Mokuba do it as well. Joey struggled, but Kaiba had his arms pinned above his head and had pushed their bodies tightly together so there was no room for him to manoeuvre his legs.

Turns out Kaiba did not intended to publicly humiliate him at the university. He had dragged him into a near-by ally to beat the shit out of him instead.

Why the _FUCK_ was I asked to collect my younger brother from school ," Kaiba hissed, the coldness in his voice replaced with a brutality so strong that even Joey didn't recognise it. "Having hijacked a KaibaCorp limo and trying to give joyrides to other students. Have you got anything to say about that? His words took a more sinister tone, "mutt."

Joey decided to remain silent. Whilst he felt he was somewhat deserving of Kaiba's reaction he still loathed the idea of apologising for anything to rich-boy. Kaiba's fist tightened and he pulled Joey closer forcing the material of his clothes to constrict around his throat, until the blonde mans breathing became shallow and hoarse.

Joey braced himself for more of Kaiba's wrath, but was surprised when Kaiba's grip loosened as he felt his vision become consumed by flash of white. Joey looked around appreciating having control of his body back, he flexed his neck round and saw in the fading light a dark figure scuttle round the corner.

It was a long time before either of them spoke, with Kaiba eventually breaking the silence in a low and dangerous voice.

"The press are going to have a field day."

* * *

It was about two weeks before Ryou was scheduled for another lesson with Bakura. He had cancelled on the older man every week that month and in the end Yugi had threatened to hide the phone if Ryou continued refusing to go.

Bakura lived in the roughest part of town, heavily industrialised to the point that anything outside the building was mostly consumed by gravel and uneven tarmac. The flat itself was situated in a large concrete building, predominately grey with patches of murky green - mildew from the poor water insulation.

Ryou tread carefully over a clot of yellowing condoms and tried not to look anyone in the eye as he walked into the building. He had only to push the door to enter, as the communication system outside the front looked like it had been smashed with a bat. As there was no desk or managerial figure waiting on the inside, Ryou scurried up the stairs hoping no one was looking at him and didn't stop until he reached room twenty-one.

Bakura answered the door relatively quickly, looking thoroughly unamused.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Cold anger dripped from Bakura's words as he grudgingly allowed Ryou into the apartment.

Despite the neglected exterior of the building, the apartment itself was rather nice. Whilst the walls were a dirtied cream colour and the carpet uncomfortable and wiry, the setup of the room itself was very cosy and looked well cared for.

"Well? " Ryou didn't respond, causing Bakura to glare. Not even making an attempt to contain his temper he began to shout. "Fucking hell, how _weak _are you to let rumours prevent you from gaining a decent education." The distaste grew with each word. "Fuck that shit - to put _my _future at risk. I need this extra credit. I have two jobs I -" Bakura began to stammer with anger leaving Ryou standing petrified on the spot. Unfortunately the evolutionary fight - or -flight reaction that came naturally to most human beings had been replaced in Ryou by a frozen state of shock, that would have likely resulted in his cave-man self being eaten .

Bakura ran his fingers though his hair snarling . " So what did they tell you? That I practice voodoo? That I'm gay? "Unable to force out the words, Ryou just pointed to himself hoping Bakura would get the message.

He didn't.

"Well it's none of your fucking-"

In the living room was another man, sat huddled up on a tattered blue sofa drinking what smelled like tomato soup. He had straggly blonde hair that fell messily onto bronzed shoulders, which were shaking with what sounded like stifled laughter.

"Fucking hell Bakura, no wonder the poor kid didn't want to turn up." He turned to Ryou. "It's like the goddam Jerry Springer show," Bakura scowled, as Marik smirked and addressed Ryou again, this time even more loudly "Do you reckon I'd get my Jerry Beads if I flashed him."

"Fuck off Marik." The man in question just stuck his tongue out laughing good naturedly and gestured Ryou over to the couch . Bakura looked unamused.

"I am doing this for _us. _I am protecting _us_!_" _There was a sadness to Bakura's voice, a hollowness that had replaced the previous anger.

"I know Bakura," Marik's tone softened as Ryou tentatively took a seat next to him on the couch. "But did you ever consider that he might just be shy." Ryou nodded violently causing Marik to laugh a little " I mean come on Bakura, you're not exactly the most friendly looking guy around." Bakura looked at Ryou who was sat in what could only be described as a small ball, his hands clutched tightly around his legs and his eyes widened.

"Oh." The guilt was palpable in Bakura's tone as he observed the man uncomfortably. "Well in that case… lets get started. "

He went to a small book shelf and retrieved from it a small French dictionary, before taking Ryou's hand and leading him to a nearby table. This marked the first time Ryou had seen the older man smile.

* * *

Yugi thought it a testament to how nerdy actually was in that over the last few weeks his capacity for ogling Tea's tits had dropped from being the main focus of his lessons, to just two bouncing balls of fun in his peripheral vision. His attention towards his history teacher was now unwavering.

Sure professor Yami liked to dress himself as something akin to bondage slave and that could be fairly distracting, but as Yugi still had a full suitcase full of dog collars stashed under his bed leftover from high school, he felt he was not at liberty to pass judgment. Even Bandit Keith, some sleazy muscle from Ryou's class had drawn the comparison - they both had haircuts that were styled like a hedgehog fucking a packet of skittles and shoes so pointy that Madonna would cream herself.

Nonetheless Yugi's confidence had increased tenfold, his marks improved significantly because of professor Yami's influence and he now placed consistently in the top quartile of his class. Sure he still didn't answer questions with the same uh, gusto as some of the girls, but he was no longer afraid to voice his opinions when asked for them. The relationship he held with professor Yami had developed from the initial _'My Best Friends Wedding' _esque jealousy, into mutual respect and a warm friendship. Whilst the teacher was happy to give anyone within the class extra help or time should they desire it, Yami went out of his way to speak to Yugi or lend him books. In return Yugi couldn't help but feel a warm glow every time professor Yami branched off from the rest of the class to talk to him individually. This wasn't to say Yugi wasn't still a little envious of the man, he would watch Tea giggle and flirt, and could not deny the flutter of resentment that dropped in the pit of his stomach. But Yugi wasn't petty and no flirtation could blind him from the mans many virtues and prevent him from looking at professor Yami with anything other than the utmost respect.

This is why when professor Yami made a surprise announcement Yugi was determined to impress him.

"Every year the University funds a two month abroad history trip for the students within the history department they deem to be" he paused to paraphrase with irony and exaggeration" the 'best and brightest.'" The class laughed. "As all of you have worked hard and I feel you all show great potential, I have chosen to set you an independent essay - an essay on any aspect of Ancient Egyptian culture of best ten essays I receive, will win a place on our trip-" This time he paused for effect, " - our trip to Egypt."

* * *

Serenity Wheeler didn't want to heal the sick.

Most psychiatric nurses enter the profession with a desire to do good and to help the mentally unstable live happy normal lives. Serenity hated the normal.

Whereas other nurses focused on keeping the patients in their most mundane normalized state, Serenity would poke and prod until she discovered exactly what made them tick. She wanted them crazy, 'frothing at the mouth - hanging onto the bars - redrum' crazy. Take a patient with severe Msyophobia, Serenity would leave a dirty handkerchief loose at the edge of her pocket and watch as it fell into the patients nice clean room. She'd absorb all the screaming and crying, every tear and howl - but wouldn't pick it up until they _begged_ her too.

She could spend hours just watching them, the sicker the better. She liked the violence, sometimes she'd give one a hair pin, nothing conspicuous, just sharp enough to break the skin. Sometimes they'd write her things, cute little messages in blood. Sometimes they'd just lie in it, rolling around covering themselves in the red, their faces and bodies plastered. She laughed a little at the thought of it, but choked when the a twinge of pain hit her and suddenly the laughter began to stick in her throat. Her body weakened and she began to feel sick, clutching herself and leaning against a wall, her eyesight blurring and fluxing, oozing colour.

"It's horrible to watch isn't it dear," Came the voice of a concerned nurse.

"Dreadful," She replied still holding onto the wall for support, the brightness in the room had magnified leaving her vision a mess of searing white.

This wasn't the first time this had happened. Serenity decided to call her brother.

* * *

**IMPORTANT SHIT**

**WHAT STORY WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MOST:**

**So guys, basically I've written the first of four stories, I'm only going to post one, because I want to continue with this story and feel I can only successfully juggle two stories at a time.**

**Story one: It's a Joey/Kaiba fic. It's a little different in that it's told from the point of view of a male OC. One of the janitors who works at KaibaCorp observes Joey and Kaiba's relationship develop and slowly becomes obsessed with Kaiba. Scary stalking ensues. **

**Story two: So this one is based on the movie Amadeus. Only with card games and gay sex. It's Prideshipping, essentially Kaiba is incredibly jealous of Yami's duelling prowess and formulates a plan to kill him, all whilst lusting over his hot Egyptian bod. **

**Story three: A Puppyshipping story based on 'Lady and the Tramp'.**

**Story four: A Yu-Gi-Oh version of 'Pride and Prejudice.'**

******THANK YOU TO: Zambino, RevengeTheRaven, Mrnonmous, Megan, Morris and Amaris the Dark Mage.**

**No beta-reader this time :(.**

**THANKYOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR READING THIS FAR 3**

**If you get the incentive to review then the magical bunny of plots will visit your bed late at night and bring you a naked Seto Kaiba.**


	6. Duel Hard 2

**AUTHOR NOTE:**

**.I'****ve always liked the idea of bad guys going shopping and watching TV. Because unless somebody is full on psychotic (like Yami Marik), they have to have human interests and moments of nonsensical, or just plain mundane behavior. Come on, even Voldemort must have taken a shit once in a while **

**For instance, in the show we see Bakura has a sarcastic sense of humor and I wanted to get that across. Like I said, this is AU so the things that haven't or have happened to the characters outside of canon are going to change how they behave. So while Bakura still has as similar personality, he'****s not so set on '****destroying the pharaoh'**** and is generally a lot less messed up.**

**Marik was more difficult because as much as I love the abridged series, I wanted him to have the characterization of the original series. I think the key personality change Marik will undergo is that because in this fic his dad was just an abusive asshole and it wasn'****t due to a life of isolation underground to protect the pharaoh, he has no one to blame except his aforementioned father. Also, not being lied to about the cause of his father's death and being sent to a normal school is obviously going to impact his personality, especially how he interacts with other people. We see in the series how Marik reacts when he first see'****s the motorcycles and the magazine and the television, so I imagine that in this fic, where he has always been exposed to these kind of things, he would be a massive pop-culture junkie.**

**A big thanks to: Becky, Hikari Kame, Alpha-Chives, KoiinuNe, Naomi, Amaris the Dark Mage, lady Alexas, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret and lovemondotrasho. I hope Yami delivers you mountains of yaoi, whilst dancing naked around a pole covered in whipped cream ;O!**

* * *

As Ryou got to know Bakura better, he decided that there was only one thing he could conclusively say about the man.

Bakura was a massive dick.

At first the lessons had started off as tender and apologetic, Bakura was gently guiding Ryou through the French curriculum and due to Ryou's shy nature he greatly benefited from this method of teaching. Unfortunately this gentleness didn't last long. Bakura's initial teaching style had only been a result of the previous guilt he had held because of his misconceptions about Ryou, guilt he got over pretty quickly.

Bakura got bored easily; he would roll his eyes and hit his head on the table - frustrated by Ryou's bad French. It wasn't that Ryou was a slow learner, quite the opposite really, but he just hadn't ever been able to grasp foreign languages. It was probably partially due to how badly he expressed himself in real life. If he could barely string two words together in Japanese, how was he supposed to do it in French? Over time this started to grate on the nerves of the older man, who often seemed only two incorrectly conjugated verbs away from punching Ryou in the face.

When the sessions had first begun Bakura would sit by Ryou and help him learn sheets of words, carefully correcting him on his pronunciation. Now he'd get up to make himself a sandwich, leaving Ryou to wade hopelessly through a sea of what looked like to him, unpronounceable jibber-jabber.

"Êtes-vous enceinte ?" Ryou stammered, he had decided a few lessons ago to drop any attempt at doing a French accent, after being mercilessly teased by Bakura and Marik for renting out the DVD of Beauty and the Beast and trying to replicate the way the talking candlestick spoke. Peppe le pue's dialect hadn't worked either.

"Good, now what does that mean?" Bakura asked, cutting two slices of bread off a loaf and placing them on the counter where he was standing.

"Are you…a cornflake?" Ryou finished lamely, burying his head in the desk in shame as Bakura stared on incredulously.

"It's a good thing you're pretty," Marik's plummy voice carried over from the sofa, causing Ryou to smile despite himself. Marik, had remained very kind to Ryou during his time at the apartment, a vast contrast to the biting ridicule of the easily irritated Bakura. Whilst he was grateful for Marik's presence around the apartment, he couldn't help but find it weird that he was always there, sitting on the sofa yelling hopelessly at tealevonas and bad reality TV. He didn't seem to have a job and whilst it had been mentioned in passing that he used to do a course at the Ryou's University, he certainly wasn't going there anymore. Ryou had once tried to enquire into why Marik had left the course, but the question had been fiercely shot down by Bakura and Ryou wisely vowed never to ask again.

It was difficult to get any information out of either man, Marik because he would evade the question with humor and Bakura, because asking the white haired man anything even remotely personal seemed like a death wish. That said, one of the few things Ryou had managed to deduce was that Bakura and Marik were not dating. Ryou was still _very_ attracted to Bakura and as frightening as he found the man, he couldn't help feel a pang of delight in learning that Bakura was single. In many ways it was the elder man's voice, a husky baritone that could go from a fierce demand, to a velvety whisper in an instant.

"Hey Marik, Ryou, do you guys want a sandwich?" Bakura asked loudly, shattering Ryou's chain of thought (using a tone that incidentally fell into the first category.)

"No thank you," Ryou said softly, feeling his face redden.

"No Carlos no!" Marik screamed at the television melodramatically.

"Marik. Marik." Bakura paused for a second, to see if Marik was taking even the blindest bit of notice. He seemed unsurprised to find that he was not, taking in a large breath of air before bellowing… "MARIK!"

"What?" Marik's eyes were still on the television.

"Would you like a sandwich?"

"Have we got pastrami?"

"We have ham." Marik groaned a sound which seemed to irritate Bakura who continued. "Or would you rather have a nice big plate of go fuck yourself?" Marik looked like he was about to declare that that was exactly what he'd like, but seeing the dangerous look forming in Bakura's eyes clearly thought better of the idea.

"I'd settle for some Count Chocula" Marik finally responded, turning away from Bakura, his rich lavender eyes glued to the small television screen.

"You bought more of that imported America crap?" Bakura sounded really irritated. He grimaced looking at Ryou, probably wishing to say more to Marik but unwilling to do so in front of his tutee. He gave a heavy sigh. "You can eat it, but I ain't making it for you." Marik looked up, aghast at the idea of tearing himself away from his beloved program.

"But Bakura, Carlos is going to propose!"

"Why does that stop you making your own cereal?"

"Because she's sleeping with his brother Jose." Marik said impassioned, as if this somehow explained his point. Bakura just sighed.

"But I thought he loved Sandra?"

"I thought you hated this show?"

"Fuck off." Marik laughed,

"Fine, fine I'll go hungry till the shows over. Cor, you'd make a terrible housewife Bakura." Marik gave Bakura a good-natured laugh before turning back to his show.

The show Marik was watching was full of loud, well-endowed woman speaking in a language Ryou vaguely recognized as Spanish. After the program had finished Marik let out a wistful sigh and joined the other two men in the kitchen.

"Ahh French! The language of love." Marik began to do a strange whimsical dance to himself, fluttering over to Bakura who pointedly ignored him. "Je vis d'amour et d'eau douce," Marik declared exaggeratedly. Ryou slumped over the table in defeat, unable to even pretend he understood what Marik was saying.

Fortunately Bakura saw this and took pity on Ryou, "Maybe I should teach him to say 'spray-tanned dolt?"

"How dare you!" "My tan is as real as…" Began Marik, indignantly.

"The biology professor's chest?" Bakura cut him off. Ryou smiled Professor Valentines' 'assets' were legendary, even outside of the science department.

"I don't understand why you don't just show him the Moulin Rouge, that'll teach him all the French he needs!"

"I don't think the ability to pick up floosy can-can girls constitutes as fluency."

Marik seemed to ignore this thought as he began singing, "Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir, Voulez vous coucher avec moi" tunelessly putting cereal into a bowl.

Bakura gave a short of derision and masked an amused smile; Ryou just looked awkwardly at the ground and waited for Bakura to continue.

* * *

Seto Kaiba wasn't just unhappy, he was psychotically enraged. He licked the tip of his finger and turned another page of the newspaper, just one of an enormous stack piled upon his desk. Kaiba was a man who liked to keep his personal life personal, and for the most part he succeeded in this. He was not, he told himself, anything like that preening peacock Zigfried. Zigfried Von Schroeder was the CEO of SchroederCorp, KaibaCorps company rival, a pink haired man who dressed in lavish clothes and dominated the celebrity media with what they described as his 'sexscapades'. Kaiba loathed the idea of anyone prying into his personal life, an aversion likely created from the intrusive media swarm and rumors following his stepfather's death. So when he saw his brother's picture splattered athwart the front page of several national newspapers he decided something needed to be done.

'Joy riding delinquent' 'Mokuba - The Kaiba family's secret bad boy. 'The headlines had been piling up for days now. If Kaiba was being truthful with himself the articles could have been far more brutal in what they wrote, if anything they painted Mokuba as a teenage rebel. Not an image Kaiba necessarily wanted associated with the company, but it didn't appear to be especially harmful either.

If anything it actually seemed to be having a positive effect.

Several girls' magazines had asked the company if they could have an interview with Mokuba. Whilst Kaiba had sneered at the mere thought of it at first, he had later been informed that the previously almost non-existent demographic of Japanese teenage girls, that bought KaibaCorps products had shot up by about 5%. Not only did this appeal to Kaiba as a businessman, but it seemed that Mokuba himself wasn't unhappy about the attention, quite the opposite actually. He had earlier that week caught him cutting off the sleeves of several shirts and just last night found flexing his muscles and practicing a smile in the bathroom mirror. Moreover, when he had shut down the requests of the girls magazines to do the interviews Mokuba had seemed upset and it had eventually transpired that he had actually wanted to do them. Reluctantly Kaiba had relented and allowed him to do an interview for a popular American tabloid, reasoning that if it was foreign it would infringe less on their personal lives (he had also made Mokuba solemnly agree to a strict set of regulations on what he could and could not talk about). Over the first few days following the interview, the percent of American girls buying KaibaCorps products had doubled.

This was what angered Kaiba the most… that despite his best efforts to shield himself and Mokuba from the media spotlight they had not escaped it and even more frustratingly it seemed to be working in the company's favor.

That said he was still trying to track down the slime ball who photographed him and Joey in the alley. Whilst he hadn't found the story in the papers thus far, with the families newfound place in the limelight he couldn't imagine it would be long until that photo appeared somewhere. Kaiba groaned, rubbing his temples, Mokuba's newfound 'bad boy' image might not be bad for the company, but he couldn't see 'abusive boss' having quite the same effect.

Kaiba hadn't spoken to Joey since their argument. He had found out from Mokuba that Joey's sister was having problems with her eyesight and that her chances of recovery weren't looking good. Whilst usually unsympathetic towards the problems of others, Kaiba couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for Joey, the thought of anything like that happening to Mokuba too painful to even contemplate. As a result he had not pursued Joey any further about his role in Mokuba's misdemeanor and had instead opted to avoid speaking to him, his anger about the incident and his aggravation towards Joey strong enough that he felt that if he even attempted to comfort his tenant, he would probably end up pushing him down the stairs.

Despite this Kaiba had afforded a few luxuries to try and make the next few days a little easier for Joey. Whilst the ingredients were usually pre-provided Joey had previously been expected to cook his own food, however Kaiba had paid the staff extra to have meals readily prepared and had the company's chauffeurs stay on site and take shifts just in case there was an emergency and Joey needed to get to the hospital.

This uncharacteristically thoughtful behavior was followed by something even more unexpected in the gossip section of a small woman's magazine:

"Seto Kaiba's secret affair - Lovers spat in an alley."

Well, that wasn't what he had been expecting.

* * *

Mokuba himself hadn't been displeased with the press coverage. Whilst he had remained apologetic towards his elder brother, genuinely upset that he had caused him so much trouble; he also couldn't help but feel pleased at the female attention the story had bought him. He had made up a lie to the chauffeur about a school trip and given half the class a joyride in one of the KaibaCorp limos, not only had it been pretty fun but it had certainly raised his profile amongst his peers.

Despite a few harsh words from his brother, he hadn't really gotten into that much trouble. Seto had gifted the school a new set of high-tech computers to ensure that Mokuba didn't face any serious repercussions, and the press had treated his mishap with what could almost be described as amused admiration. It had been kind of surreal really, the teacher interviewed (Alistair - a strange redheaded man with a crop top fetish), had sensationalized the whole story, acting like this was a fairly typical for Mokuba and affectionately dubbing him the class rebel. Mokuba thought ruefully about how this was a big change from the 'sweet but mousey' character that had been described on his school report. In fact, the only real downside to the whole incident had been that the one person Mokuba had truly hoped to impress seemed decidedly un-amused by the entire turn of events.

Rebecca appeared little more than irritated by the whole episode. She had refused a ride in the KaibaCorp limo and although she hadn't ratted out those that did take part, Mokuba had heard her complain about 'spoilt rich boys' the very next day (sure the complaint had been to a teddy, but hey, it still hurt.') She had also made some rather scathing remarks in class about the papers and magazines that had chosen to run the story, which further agitated Mokuba who had managed to sweet talk his brother into letting him do an interview for 'J-14', an American magazine that he knew was widely read in Japan and popular amongst the other girls in his class. When he thought about it, he supposed Rebecca's reaction was understandable. Her entrance into the school had been from a scholarship as opposed to money or connections like the other students and so she had to work hard every year just to remain at the school and hence tended to react badly to others she perceived to be 'squandering their education'.

Nevertheless his reputation had dramatically improved and he had found himself surrounded by many people (lots of of whom, to his great delight were girls) that had previously ignored him, now desperate to be his friend. As the brother of Seto Kaiba, he had never had problems with bullying (not only was he rich, but everyone was aware of Seto's infamous temper, army of Harvard lawyers and links with the special services). Unfortunately Mokuba himself was a little awkward, the restrictive nature of his upbringing with Gozaburo and later the fierce protectiveness of his brother, leading him to mature emotionally a little later than normal. So although the high-profile of his adopted family prevented him from becoming the victim of any malice or unpopularity, he had spent most of his school life with only few friends. And so it goes without saying that this new found popularity went a little bit to his head.

That hadn't even been the strangest thing to happen to Mokuba during the week. Later that evening, whilst scanning the papers looking for more stories about himself he had come across something very bizarre:

"Seto with…Joey?" He thought for a second before shrugging, "I guess that makes sense."

* * *

Joey's week had been terrible. It had started with a phone call from his sister who informed him that she was experiencing frequent blackouts and was now undergoing tests to see if this was going to become permanent. Serenity had had bad eyesight since the two of them were kids and thanks to his dads drinking problem his family had never been able to afford the surgery necessary to have it fixed. This was one of the main reasons his parents had divorced and why Joey had been left alone with his father. Whilst his mother couldn't afford the Surgery with her salary alone, if she only had to support herself and Serenity she could afford some of the alternative medicinally based treatments. So Joey had been left behind. Alone.

In many ways it felt like he was reliving moments from his past, finding out Serenity was to go blind and remaining completely helpless to do anything. He had been on edge all week; he had skipped nearly all of his classes and had lashed out at his friends. Serenity had spent the week undergoing a number of tests and whilst she hadn't had any results back yet, the doctors didn't seem optimistic. Joey felt useless, he was Serenity's big brother, he was supposed to protect her. To his mind he hadn't been there for her when they children and he couldn't't protect her now. He felt _worthless_. One of the main reasons he had chosen to go to university, was that with a degree he figured he could get a higher paid job. Joey wasn't academic, hell, he hated school. But all of his mum's money was going towards the current treatment and any work he could currently hope to get had no hope of covering the surgery costs. To his mind this course would give him the opportunity to be the big brother he had promised to be and to do something right for a change. But if the results of these tests came back negatively then there would be little anyone could do, he would have failed again and seriously. That was Joey's worst fear.

Whilst it had never been enough to fix Serenity's eyesight, the problem had become manageable with the medicine his mum had been paying for. The doctors did say that her body would become immune to the treatment eventually; but over the course of a few decades, not now. If she had become immune to the treatment already, then that meant without the corrective surgery she would begin to go blind.

His friends were being supportive as possible, that helped. Yugi for all his small size was an emotional strong-hold. He had quietly assured Joey that whatever happened, he would be there for him and that whether the results were good or bad, they would face them together. Tea had been helping too, taking time off from her lectures to stay with him whilst Tristan was at work. She had been looking with him at different methods of medical treatment for if the worst happened. Whilst nothing they found could be used as a permanent solution, they might find something help to delay Serenity's condition until the Surgery could be afforded. And then there was Tristan. Tristan had stayed up the night with Joey, letting him talk honestly about his fears; Tristan went to work beaten by tiredness, only to sit with Joey for as long as he needed the very next night. Tristan and Joey had known each other for years and there was an unspoken bond between them, a silent vow of support for whenever the other one should need it. Joey just hoped he could do the same for him someday.

The only other person whom Joey had spoken too was Mokuba who, as he was still supposed to be living in Kaiba's flat and was still changing and eating there for the most part, Joey was still obligated to visit. When Joey had told Mokuba about his sister he had clearly found the discussion a little uncomfortable, but afterwards he had tried his hardest to appear reassuring and even seemed to have arranged some financial aid for Joey. At the very least he appeared to have spoken to the staff because after that day meals had been ready readily prepared for him and he had been informed a chauffeur would be ready to drive him to the hospital in the case of an emergency. Joey was touched by Mokuba's kindness; especially in the face of the trouble he caused him and his brother. He was honestly surprised he hadn't been fired on the spot, especially after he had seen that morning's newspapers (the idea of Mokuba as a bad boy was so surreal that it made Joey chuckle a little, despite himself). Elder Kaiba hadn't been speaking to him - he wasn't surprised, rich boy had never given a shit about anyone other than himself and his brother. It stung a little, but it was still far too trivial for Joey to get mad over, he had much more important things to worry about.

Joey gave a small sigh of despair, before lifting himself off the wall and beginning his walk home, the dull grey sky now a back drop for harsh lines of torrential rain. Joey thought bitterly of how the weather always seemed to want to replicate his mood. He vaguely remembered Tea talking about it at some point, according to her it was called 'the pathetic something.' 'Well,' he thought, 'the word pathetic certainly seems fitting'. He racked his brain, clumsily trying to wipe the hair out of his eyes, which was currently splayed over his forehead, matted together in the wet.

He thought for a while, concentrating desperately, to try, just for a second to take his mind off his sister. "Fallacy! The pathetic fallacy," he said after a few minutes pumping a fist at his victory "Maybe ol' Joey Wheeler aint as stupid as they all think."

"I'd beg to differ dweeb?" A slow condescending drawl filled the air, and Joey suddenly became aware of a large presence behind him. He turned around - it was Bandit Keith.

* * *

Yugi, was really worried about Joey. When he heard the news about Joey's sister all his previous worries about the upcoming essay vanished, dwarfed by Joey's own fears of his sister losing her sight. It was difficult to know what to do to comfort Joey. Yugi hadn't experienced much loss in his life and so he felt anything he might say would appear contrived and artificial, so instead he offered Joey his time if ever he wanted it and tried to give him as much room to talk as he could. Tea had done much of the same thing, having even skipped one of professor Yami's lessons to stay with him whilst Tristan (whom Joey was currently spending most of his nights with) was at work.

Obviously Yugi didn't regret spending most of that week with Joey, but that didn't stop him wishing he could have worked for longer on his history essay. The limited time he'd had to write it had undoubtedly had an impact on the quality of his writing and rereading it Yugi could say with miserable certainty that it wasn't his best work. Which is why when he sat down in class on the day of the results, he was filled was a heavy feeling of dread.

The trip it transpired, was an opportunity for students to sample a taste at the archaeological aspect of history. They were visiting Luxor, the modern city previously known as Thebes, that stood opposite the west bank of the Nile where The Valley of the Kings is situated. It was also, Tea noted longingly, home to some pretty fabulous beaches. This observation seemed to strike a chord with many of the girls in the class who suddenly found extra incentive at the prospect of professor Yami shirtless, (or as Tea envisioned it, professor Yami _wet _and shirtless).

Said professor was today, on top of the usual inordinate amount of leather he wore, also sporting a large spiky belt, causing Yugi to mentally liken him to a dominatrix. Seriously what BSMD fetish store did this guy shop at? He turned to Tea, who for once was not looking at the sassy leather clad professor, she had her eyes tightly fixed on the desk, her fingers were crossed and she appeared to be mouthing the words 'Yami in a Speedo. Yami in a Speedo. Yami in a Speedo. Yami in a Speedo,' over and over again.

Yugi sighed a little jealously, remembering the time he had borrowed his Grandpas old banana-hammock on one of the gangs trips to the beach and how Tea had teased him. Although to be fair the pants had been bright yellow spandex and thanks to being a late comer to puberty and the freezing cold water, his 'beef whistle' (a name Tristan had lovingly bestowed upon it), looked more like a shrivelled chipolata, the shape of it engrained like a fossil to the front of the tight material. Of course that was a few years ago and Yugi's 'one eyed wonder muscle (that one was Joey's)' was now as impressive as anyone's. He would just have to find a way to show Tea how much his body had matured. He recoiled a little, adding mentally that he would do so in a way that didn't seem as perverted.

He ran his hands over his face in despair. Was it really any wonder Tea didn't fancy him?

As if to give validation to Yugi's fear, Tea clasped her hands together, barely disguising a squeal, she had scored eighth in the class. Yugi then remembered what Yami had said about only the top ten students being permitted to come on the trip and sighed. Similar groans were heard from girls many of whom had already bought new bathing suits to impress Professor Yami and from the boys in the class who had hoped to see the girls in said costumes (and some who lusted after professor Yami themselves).

Yugi silently prayed as Yami placed the marked essay backwards on his desk '_Tea in a bikini. Tea in a bikini. Tea in a bikini. Tea in a -'_He took a deep breath and turned over his paper.

Yugi had come thirteenth.

* * *

**.I want to make the point that I LOVE Thiefshipping, but this fic isn'****t a Thiefshipping fic. I want to explore the facets of a platonic Bakura/Marik relationship.**

**But I am currently working on a '****50 Shades of Grey Parody'**** – '50 Shades Of Thiefshipping.' That'll be coming out with a bunch of other stuff sometime next month. Although, the next chapter of this one should hopefully be out before then!**

**.Je vis d'amour et d'eau douce is 'you drive me crazy in French."**

**."Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir, Voulez vous coucher avec moi" – Is 'will you go to bed with me tonight?'**

**. "Êtes-vous enceinte ?" is 'Are you pregnant?'**

**If you review Marik will let you spit-shine his 'rod' ;). **

.


	7. Dial M for Marik

**Author Note: FUCK MY FUCKING LIFE. I had to write this twice because my memory stick topped itself and I hadn't backed up my files. Sorry about the wait :/ **

**Once again Yugi is a good person – great person, one of the nicest people in all of Yugioh,**_** but **_**he is still human. So on top of the wayward boners, he would probably get pissed off occasionally, maybe even for selfish reasons. Sure he might feel guilty about it afterwards and he wouldn't necessarily voice his anger. But whilst he remains human the feelings would indefinitely be there. **

**Chaseshipping always occurs in any fic I write. I cannot help it, even when I'm not intending for it to happen, it literally writes itself. There's also some Tea/Tristan friendship here, I haven't developed Tea's character much yet so I thought this might be a good place to start. :D. **

**IMPORTANT: I've decided to take the 'Keith-getting-macked-on-by-Joey' subplot in a different direction. The intent is still plot-relevant (as you shall discover in this chapter), BUT the end results and what's done about it have changed entirely. That said, old flag-head will still be appearing in later chapters.**

* * *

Yugi Muto was one of those rare few people whom when things in his life are going to crap actually thinks of somebody undergoing a worse situation. He could therefore tell you with good authority that doing this does not make you feel any less like shit.

He sat in the classroom, holding his head miserably in his hands, even his pointy hair seemed to be drooping like a wilting dandelion.

Yami remained; hand on hip overlooking them, a wry smirk fixed upon his face. _'Sassy prick' _Yugi thought to himself, a pang of guilt hitting him afterwards. It wasn't Yami's fault he would be unable to go on the trip, he just wished that Tea would have to remain back home with him so she wouldn't get to see Yami's fine-ass beach body. Another lie. Yugi wanted Tea to be happy above all else and who knows maybe Yami wasn't as sexy once he got his kit off.

He looked over at said professor, at the close fitting t-shirt he was wearing and noted the way it clung tightly to his stomach. 'Let's face it', thought Yugi 'I'm fucked'.

"Over the last few days…, "Yami began, silencing the class," I have engaged in something of a social experiment. Ivan Pavlov was a neurological scientist who developed work on a form of learning known as classical conditioning. This is the idea that you reward good behaviour and punish bad behaviour –"

"I wouldn't mind being punished by him," Tea muttered to herself.

"- and in so doing can modify the way a person acts. I have, in a manner of speaking, attempted an experiment, to see how well this approach would work with the class. I told you all that the top ten essays produced would be rewarded with the trip to Egypt and that the rest of you would not be allowed to go," he continued. "And I must say that Pavlov would have rejoiced, for I did notice a sizable increase in the calibre of the work presented to me, well, for the most part…" He eyed Yugi, who turned his head quickly, blushing. "That said the overall quality of work this year and improvement from some of you has been outstanding and so I shall keep you in suspense no longer –"

The entire class stared at him in disbelief, no-one said anything, and the room remained silent as they waited for the 'penny to drop'.

"You are all going on the trip."

Excitement was palpable in the air as the room erupted into cheers of joy (with the exception of Tea who cursed inwardly, aware that this would mean more competition for Professor Yami's attention).

Yugi looked at Yami who met his eyes briefly and as he smiled Yugi noticed a softness in his eyes he hadn't seen before. The way Yami looked at him was for lack of a better word…penetrating, almost intrusive, and Yugi discovered himself left with a strange uneasiness as he tore his eyes away and joined the rest of the class in celebration.

The bell rang. As the class were happily leaving the room Yugi noticed that Tristan was waiting outside the door, he urgently beckoned for Tea and Yugi to join him then burst into agitated speech.

"It's Serenity. It's not good news."

* * *

"Fuck off Keith. I ain't in the mood for this, not today." Joey tried to walk away, but Keith grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and yanked him back.

"Save it dweeb. It's been goin' all round the University, how you're planning to follow me into the showers and hit on me." Joey clenched his fists and tried to remain calm, "Some amateur street punk like you trying to make a fool outta me. I don't think so." Keith's face contorted, twisting until it became an ape-like snarl. "And don't think I don't know who put you up to this, cause once I'm done with you I'm gonna pay a short visit to little-Ryou."

Joey leapt at him.

Keith dodged smoothly and aimed a hard blow to Joey's stomach, who lifted his fists and caught the impact allowing the momentum to knock Keith off balance.

Joey clubbed at his kidneys and the let air out of Keith's lungs, releasing a strangled, gasping sound as he fell to the floor, doubled over in pain.

If there was one thing Joey's life in gangs had taught him, it was to _always_ kick a man when he's down, and Joey had never been so happy to administer this principle as he delivered a hard kick to Keith's teeth, who retched and gargled as his mouth filled with blood.

Growling, almost beastlike in rage Keith grabbed Joey's foot and forced him to the ground. Joey let out a cry of agony as the back of his head contacted sharply with the pavement and he felt the top of Keith's foot slam roughly into his throat. He heaved with nausea, clutching at the floor with one hand, struggling to breathe as the world began to fade into a dark blur. With his remaining hand he tried to strike out at Keith, but his swings were becoming increasingly weak and he could feel his consciousness wavering. Just as he was about to succumb to the pain he felt a strong hand grip him hard and drag him roughly to his feet.

"Get up off the floor."

It was Kaiba.

* * *

Kaiba watched Joey stumble to his feet, resisting the urge to steady him. He then turned his attention towards Keith, who was lying still huddled on the ground. He gave a hand gesture towards the limo and out marched four of the KaibaCorp guards, huge, bald, men with mean faces, followed by a solemn looking Mokuba.

Mokuba walked over to Joey, struggling to meet his eye.

"Mokuba? What's goin' on?"

"We've had a call from the hospital," He hesitated. "It's your sister, she's not doing so good."  
Joey visibly faltered his hand coming up as if to ward off a blow. Mokuba gave him a pitying look and directed him towards the car.

Kaiba turned away from the scene uneasily, before turning to the largest, ugliest looking guard and directing him towards Keith. "Show him what happens when you mess with KaibaCorp employees." Keith's eyes widened in fear, but Kaiba just sneered, climbing with the other three guards back into the limo and directing the driver to take them to Domino City Hospital.

The atmosphere in the car was unpleasant, Joey was staring lifelessly at the floor. Mokuba and Kaiba glanced at each other awkwardly. 'Say something' mouthed Mokuba.

"I've heard of dog fights, but I've never seen one in action before." Mokuba shot his brother a dirty look, but that was nothing compared to Joey's reaction.

"Fuck this. I aint doing this…not today. Open the door I'm getting out."

"Joey this is a moving car, you can't just get out." Mokuba exclaimed as Joey rose to his feet and started yanking violently at the door.

"I don't give a shit. I aint sitting here while that sneering asshole takes the piss of out me; on the way to find out that my baby sisters probably gonna go blind. Now open the fucking door!" He pulled at the handle aggressively.

"Joey the doors don't open from the inside."

"Look Mokuba I appreciate all the stuff you've done for me, all the food and everything. But I aint putting up with Kaiba's shit, so please pull over the car."

"Joey the hospital is five miles away, there's no way you're getting there by foot "Mokuba said, tugging at him. He took a deep breath and lowered his eyes solemnly, "By the way, I didn't do any of that stuff. The food, the chauffeurs, that was all Seto…" There was a moment of silence; Joey stared at Kaiba, who nodded, whilst keeping his eyes averted, staring stonily out the window.

"Why?" Joey lifted his gaze to Kaiba, but it was not returned. Instead, Mokuba answered for him:

"… Seto knows what it's like to have one person you've sworn to take care of – just like you. Me and Seto, we've only have each other…kinda like you and Serenity..." He trailed off and looked at his brother whose eyes shifting to his, softened slightly.

The rest of the journey was undertaken in silence, Mokuba fidgeted awkwardly, whilst Joey and Kaiba sat stiffly, each trying to avoid the others gaze. This stillness was only broken when the limo screeched to a halt as Roland announced their arrival at the hospital and one of Kaiba's other worker-drones walked round to open the door for Joey.

"Hey Kaiba…thanks." Joey placed his hand gently on Kaiba's shoulder; it only remained there for a second but Kaiba suddenly found himself far too aware of the other man's presence. He smoothed his hand reluctantly over the fabric of his shirt, tracing softly where Joey's hand had once been. He swallowed and for a second it looked as if he wanted to say something.

But he didn't.

He slammed the door and Joey walked away.

* * *

Tristan had always been a follower of the philosophy that actions speak louder than words. He was a doer not a talker, a behind the scenes kinda guy. Sure he had a few lines he used to pick girls up and during a fight he could trash talk with the best of them, but for the most part he liked to take a more hands on approach.

That's why Tristan loved his job at the garage so much. The smell of sweat and oil and steel, chrome and leather, expensive cars and 'Pirelli' girls he couldn't afford. It was perfect.

Unfortunately the pay was utter shit. He currently made less than a fast food waiter, but he tolerated it, in a few years he would be a fully-fledged mechanic. Tristan as a child had been one of boys who would race his 'Tonka Trucks' through the mud, smashing them into each other and pretending this made explosions (his mother had attributed this to the corrupting influence of Michael Bay). This had developed throughout his teenage years, into an almost fetishist love of cars and motorcycles. He got his first bike when he was eighteen, a 1972 Honda SL 125, a beautiful vehicle with a single cylinder, four-stroke engine, sure it was a little a slow (and a little…yellow), but he loved her regardless and he named her Bessie.

He had only recently acquired a car, it was a black 1980 BMW 628 CSi , one of the best cars of its generation. Some woman had taken it into the garage to have it stripped for spare parts, Tristan had stopped her saying he couldn't bear to see such a beautiful vehicle destroyed and had bought it from her, figuring that a new car was worth skipping the next few meals (and by skipping meals he meant mooching off of Yugi). Tristan had named her Big Bertha and if that jerk Duke asks, yes it's a she and yes she's his girlfriend. The two are very happy together.

Tristan was driving. He was used to long drives as he was closely acquainted with Joey's family who lived several hours away.

He had visited Joey's mother's house many times under the guise that Joey disliked travelling alone, it was unspoken between them that he also acted as a buffer between Joey and his mother. Their relationship had been difficult since Joey's mother had left with Serenity when Joey was young, and despite the many attempts made by both of them to reconcile, any time they spent together was usually fraught with difficulties.

Nonetheless Tristan enjoyed his stays at the Wheeler residence. Despite the turbulent relationship the two shared, the woman was a damn good cook and over the years her daughter Serenity had grown to become uncommonly pretty, a fact Tristan had enjoyed noticing – many times on his visits..

There was just one problem.

Duke Devlin was Serenity's long time best friend and much to Tristan's chagrin he suited her, being also uncommonly pretty (something Tristan consoled himself was probably because he spent so much money on his hair and not because his ass was sculpted like chiselled marble. Definitely not). He was also the inventor of a popular dice game and had recently received the patronage of eccentric millionaire Maximillion Pegasus. If things went well his game would hopefully reach national popularity.

Oh, and he too had the hots for Serenity. He also owned a Merc.

Tristan could never make up his mind which of those two things upset him the most.

In many ways Duke was Tristan's exact opposite; Tristan was rough, Duke was elegant, Tristan was straightforward, Duke was charming. Tristan was poor, Duke was getting rich.

Duke's only flaw seemed to be that (despite his fancy fucking car) he didn't own a driving license. Even though Duke had moved away from his and Serenity's home town to be nearer to Pegasus when his game first took off, he was still Serenity's best friend…and she needed him.

So that's why Tristan was here, on a two hour drive, eyes dry from exhaustion, the last of his wage packet (meant for food) going on gas and letting his new car get stunk out by fancy-ass Italian cologne.

All of this for Duke.

Wait…for Serenity. Serenity is who he meant.

* * *

Tea was at the hospital.

"Excuse me," She patted one of the nurses on the shoulder, a muscular man, with blond spiked hair and similarly coloured mutton-chops. "Has anyone contacted their parents yet?"

"Their mother cannot come till tomorrow as there is no train service near her that runs this late. Their father," he paused uneasily, "We've tried to contact him several times, he hasn't answered his phone yet."

"Thank you." Tea said softly, she turned to look at Joey and Serenity. Joey tenderly stroked his sister's hair, holding her as she shook, weeping into his chest. Tristan was sat next to the bedside, his body stiff; she looked at his hand and saw it was shaking. He was trying to stay strong.

"Tristan, I just spoke to one of the nurses. Joey's mum can't get here till tomorrow. The trains near her don't run this late." He looked up wearily and tried to stand.

"No." She gently pushed him back down, "let me take your car. I'm a careful driver and besides you look like you could use some rest."

"There's not much gas in it…" Tristan reached into his pocket, fumbling around hopelessly for his wallet.

"Tristan, don't worry about it. I can fill her up for you."

"Ya sure?" She nodded. "Thanks Tea." He frowned "And ya really don't need me to come? I feel a little guilty about leaving you to do this by yourself."

"No, Joey needs you." She attempted a smile, "besides, a beautiful car always looks better with a beautiful woman driving it."

"I'm sorry Tea, she doesn't swing that way." A heavy silence fell where a laugh should have been. Tristan swallowed. "Is there anything else I can do?" He asked as he tossed her the keys.

"Just call their mum and tell her I'm on my way."

"Okay Tea, drive safe."

* * *

The last few days had been rough for everyone. Joey was a shell of his previous self, Tristan had found him a few nights ago on the sofa in a fetal position, crying. He tried to speak to him, but Joey'd just pulled a blanket over his head. Whilst the arrival of Joey's mother had been a great comfort to Serenity, the strained relationship she and Joey shared had made it difficult for Joey to really talk to his sister. He'd visited the hospital everyday for as long as he could, but whilst his mother was there, his relationship with Serenity just wasn't the same.

Yugi and Tea had been trying to do all they could, both of them now desperately sending out applications for part time jobs to help with the operation costs, but it was hard; Joey was distraught. Even Tristan hadn't been able to get through to him, he had pledged what little disposable income he could get to Joey's cause and Duke was also giving all he could whilst still keeping his business in the black (it would be some time before Dungeon Dice Monsters generated substantial proceeds). Speaking of Tristan and Duke, the two hadn't been getting along recently, they'd been conspicuously avoiding each other for a few days; everyone assumed they'd had a fight or something.

For Ryou it had bought about a new appreciation for his own human fragility and he had therefore resolved to overcome his shyness. So that was why he was on his way to Bakura's. He was going to swallow his nerves and ask the older man out for a drink (okay, it was only coffee but still)…maybe he'd even do it in French (actually no, he'd never be that confident).

He swallowed and raked a nervous hand through his hair as he tried to practice what he was going to say. "Would you care to…no. Perhaps you would consider….fuck no." He shook his head in frustration, "God why am I such a ponce." Following this he again then ran through the scenario now trying to sound cool and assertive…unfortunately this fared even worse. Not only did he end up sounding like a seventies porn star, but one of the hypothetical conversations that ended with 'can I wear your thighs for ear muffs' had been overhead by an old lady.

She had chased him.

She had chased him screaming "yes".

Having escaped the old ladies wrinkly hands of lust, he chose just to stick with 'are you free for coffee' and hope he did it without stumbling or accidentally agreeing to lend anyone money.

With this in mind, he straightened himself up and knocked on door of Bakura's apartment.

"B-Bakura?" Ryou stuttered.

Bakura tried to speak but the words seem to choke in his throat and all that came out was an indiscernible fragmented rasp.

He looked terrible.

His skin was discoloured from exhaustion and his once dark eyes were now raw and bloodshot, Ryou looked down and he saw that Bakura had Marik's blanket clutched tightly to his chest.

"Are you –" Ryou swallowed, "are you okay?" Bakura just looked emptily at him, Ryou reached his hand out and then hesitated. "Do you want me to come in?"

Bakura nodded.

* * *

The apartment seemed desolate without Marik; the mess that usually cluttered the rooms was now replaced by emptiness and the lingering smell of bleach and ammonia. All the sound and energy had been amputated, leaving nothing but a silent absence.

Bakura looked helplessly at Ryou, he opened his mouth but seemed unable to speak…instead walking almost blindly towards him.

Ryou wrapped his arms around Bakura who crumpled against him, burying his face into his neck and emitting little broken sobs. They stood like that for a while, then Ryou took Bakura's hand tenderly.

"Bakura you need to tell me what's happened." The elder man raised his head and stared at him for a few moments, before whispering slowly.

"They've taken Marik." His voice cracked, but he did not break eye contact.

"Who's taken Marik?"

"The Asylum. They've had him committed."

Bakura wept.

* * *

…tick…tock…

Serenity couldn't draw her mind away from it. From the fear that consumed her, like vomit that remained half way up the throat, slowly regurgitating itself and pushing up through her mouth, she would feel every moment of the pain. As the light slipped away from her, her entire world disappearing from view, left only with sounds, a prisoner locked in a dark room.

It was always there, the days, the hours that ticked away as her eyesight slowly deteriorated. Even if by some unlikely turn of fate they could afford the operation. It would be too late. She might not be left with total darkness, but instead grey ghosts of people, shadows of the colour and the life she had once known.

And so she resolved to do what little she could before her eyesight slipped away completely. Her last big performance before the lights went out.

She didn't have the time to play nurse-maid to Marik anymore…at least not with Bakura watching. No, if she was going to do this she'd have to take the initiative, speed the process up a little.

So she had Marik taken.

Taken where Bakura's prying eyes couldn't reach him, to the asylum where she would have complete control. She smirked; it was mostly down to Bakura that she was able to do all this. Of course she had sobbed and simpered about helping her poor friend, about needing to immediately treat his _terrible_ condition. But it was Bakura's notes, carefully drawn and exceedingly detailed that really convinced them of Marik's insanity.

That wasn't to say there weren't other problems. In circumstances such as these, certain precautions must be taken. Under regular protocol she would have to be carefully monitored by her superior. But Serenity was clever, she put on her most beseeching, soft spoken voice and pleaded that it was her last wish before she went blind to help her poor friend become mentally stable once again, that this was her only chance to prove herself as a nurse before being forced to leave the profession.

The head supervisor – Valon, a kind man with an unfortunate weakness for a pretty face, was deeply moved by her story, he promised he'd do anything he could to help her achieve her wish. She laughed; the fool would let her do anything she wanted.

Of course, soft-hearted Valon mandated that she be kept safe. He wanted her to take body guards in with her, he wanted constant surveillance. But she had prevaricated; explained that whilst she was flattered that he cared about her safety so much, she didn't want to upset the patient. Marik's state was so delicate; any feeling of a third party might make him more paranoid.

That said, she wouldn't object to a little….constraint.

The holding chair (or named by patients the Devils chair) was a relic left over from pre-reform 1930's Mental Asylums; it was designed for particularly violent and insane prisoners, those who had committed acts of torture or murder. Leather cuffs and belts were fastened by heavy strips of rope to the arms and front legs of the chair and one thick strip of leather was wound tightly over the soft dent in the throat making escape nearly impossible. The condemned would scream, shitting and sweating and vomiting, until their final moments when this chair was replaced by another, one from which they would never return.

Modern use of the chair was almost unheard of and it was only to be used in special cases.

Serenity ensured that Marik was made a _very_ special case.

She smirked, looking through the cells doors. Marik was there curled up in a shivering ball, his eyes were shut tightly, his arms wrapped protectively around himself.

"What a shame." Serenity chuckled.

Tomorrow she would begin treatment and then his world would be as black as hers.

* * *

**Author Note: So Serenity's a little evil…BUT there is a totally legitimate reason for this that you will find out later. Trust me, it will all make sense in time, I don't just hate Serenity or anything, I quite like her actually :). But yea, hopefully her villainy will become multi-dimensional. XD.**

**A BIG SEXY THANK-YOU: Yami's Devil, lady Alexas, ArcherAzzure, Pharaoh Silver, TheAlphaChives, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, phantomworks, Amaris the Dark Mage and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**Review for Marik's freedom! Or for you kinkier fangirls…his continued bondage. ;D **


	8. Bonus Chapter: Professor Yami's Diary

**THIS IS A BONUS CHAPTER! A BIG THANK YOU FOR MY 70 REVIEWS. I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU HOW MUCH IT MEANS TO ME THAT YOU ARE ALL READING AND ENJOYING MY STORY ENOUGH TO REVIEW 70 FRICKEN TIMES! **

**Warning: These Diaries are just supposed to be a little fun. They are written to be humorous and therefore are going to be pretty OOC. Not really part of the story, more like a fun parody. If you don't like this sort of thing please feel free to skip ^_^. **

**Vaguely based off Bridget Jones Diary and 'The Very Secret Diaries' by Cassandra Claire. 'The Very Secret Diaries' are great, far better than this heap of shit, so go read them :).  
**

* * *

**Yami's Diary**

**Day 1**

Look v. sexy in leather. Must be manliest teacher at university. Much manlier than tacky dance teacher. Johnny Steps is pun name?

**Day 2**

Like new class. v. good commitment to subject, although too many breasts now on show, has reaffirmed homosexuality.

On plus side one boy looks like mini-me. v. cute.

**Day 10**

New dance teacher is trying to give hair-care tips. Hair is perfect, does not need tips.

Wish there was something I could do, crush his mind or something. Shame.

**Day 17**

Have announced trip. Class v. excited which is good, although girls now trying to out-whore each other with Bikinis.

Am gay do not want to see your smelly girl parts.

**Day 19**

Student is far too cute. Must do something to distract self. Shopping spree for new leather hmm…

**Day 20**

Did nothing. Am now dry cleaning best pair of leather pants to impress said student with.

**Day 22**

Had wank over student that looks like me. Wonder if is narcissism.

**Day 25**

Have decided is not narcissism as he is far smaller. Now am worried is strange new fetish.

Watched Snow White just to be sure.

Luckily did not find dwarves attractive, although did like their commitment to friendship.

V. honourable.

**Day 26**

Am now jealous of girl with boobs. Rugged chest is far better than ugly softy lumps. Hmph.

**Day 30**

Had eye sex with look-alike student.

Win.

* * *

**Once again I hope no-one took this as a serious addition to the plot. Just thought this would be a fun way to say thank-you for all my lovely reviews.**

**If people enjoyed this I will do one for Kaiba later on, probably once I've reached 100+ :D. I would appreciate feedback for this chapter more than ever, cause I want to do cool bonus chapters as a thank you for review milestones and all the support you guys have given me. So it's pretty important that I know you guys are actually going to enjoy these. Otherwise I can try something else ^_^. **

**New chapter SHOULD be up next week and things finally start to get a little hot between two of the characters. **

**THANK YOU TOO: TheAlphaChives, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Yami's Devil, ArcherAzzure, Shadow Realm Triforce, a.k.b, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, Phoenix0192, EvilMidget6, Phoenix Down 666, MysterySky8, Crap-Music Cat, KingOfGames001, Amaris the Dark Mage and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**AND TO EVERYONE ELSE THAT HAD READ AND REVIEWED THIS STORY SO FAR! **


	9. Angst, thongs and perfect snogging

**Author note: **

**I love you all so much :D. I'm glad most of you seemed to enjoy the bonus chapter and as it was really fun to write, I've decided I'll do a new one every 50 reviews. Kaiba's next at the 100 mark and then Bakura if I make 150. If by some miracle I get anymore than that, I'll let you guys decide who else's diary you'd most like to see ****. Once again thank-you so much for all your support 3.**

**I hate writing canonically 'good' characters evil, because I spend the entire chapter wanting to give the rest of the plot away, just so the readers know there's a legitimate reason for said villainy and I'm not just character bashing. But I shall resist the temptation to maintain dramatic tension. But yea, blah blah blah…keep reading….legitimate reason…blah.**

**I've read a lot of fics where Joey is completely put off alcohol because of his dad, so I've decided to explore the other end of the spectrum where he might have an unhealthy relationship with it.**

* * *

It was like his entire body had been skinned, dipped in vinegar and then fisted by an elephant who was wearing novelty sized boxing gloves.

In short Tristan was hung-over…so very hung-over.

Tristan, Joey and Duke had gone to the pub the previous night.

Initially they'd only been there to keep an eye on Joey, to ensure he wasn't going to drink too much. Years with his father had caused Joey to have something of a bad relationship with alcohol. It was nothing even close to his dad's dependency, but enough that when things got hard his default response was to go out and get shitfaced. Tristan always tried to be there on the rare occasions that this occurred and would try to stay sober to look after him if things got nasty. Unfortunately on this particular trip, Duke and Tristan's well-meaning attempts to talk to Joey about his sister, to try and cheer him up a little, had been overheard by the bartender, who - from the kindness of his heart then offered them free drinks for the rest of the evening.

And…well…

Tristan was a weak, weak man.

So here he was ten hours later, the events of the night before were just one long black-out. He didn't know what he had done or said and his mouth tasted like a vomit-flavoured popsicle. Looking at the light this morning had been like grating onions against his eyes and all he could hear was the banging in his ears, the distant sound of retching and a moan of pain that unmistakably came from Joey.

"Hrmphh" A muffled sound came from underneath the covers.

A look of surprise flashed across Tristan's face, quickly replaced with a dirty smirk. A dark mass of black hair was spread out over the top of his pillow. On the one hand Tristan was delighted at the possibility of having been laid, on the other he had had previous experiences with drunken one night stands and knew he had incredibly questionable taste when intoxicated. Seriously, he'd woken up one morning and almost mistaken one of those girls for Yugi's grandpa, only the gigantic pair of enlarged breasts had convinced him otherwise.

Putting these thoughts out his mind and assuring himself that he would _not_ have touched anything less than a supermodel, he lifted the bed sheet, inwardly singing a little 'I scored' victory chant.

"Well who have we here?!"

The sleeping figure shifted…suddenly he could see the face.

It was Duke.

Duke was in his bed. He took another peek under the covers.

Duke was in his bed _naked._

Tristan gave a horrified scream, awaking the naked man, who took one look at Tristan before crying out in an equally shrill voice.

"Oh fuck." Duke physically pinched himself, before rubbing an exasperated hand over his face. "Not you."

"Hey, you ain't exactly Halle Berry yourself mate." Tristan looked at Duke - hot, torrid, dark hair tumbling messily over green eyes, smoky and luminous in the morning light. "Mila Kunis maybe…"

Duke threw a pillow at him and buried his face into the sheets.

"Oh fuck. What happened?"

"You mean you don't remember?" A look of dread crept across Tristan's face.

"No."

"Me either."

There was a long silence, Tristan and Duke pointedly avoided eye contact with each other, both searching for some rational explanation …aside from the obvious.

"Look. This kinda shit happens all the time. We just drunk a little too much and passed out in the same place, no biggie." Tristan tried to take an airy tone.

Duke looked at him incredulously, raising an eyebrow, "And before doing this we took all our clothes off?"

"Yes." Tristan nodded firmly, determined to believe his own story.

"And spooned..."

"WHAT?" Tristan realised he was being wound up and retorted, "Actually now you mention it I do remember that part. You were the little spoon. And you enjoyed it."

Duke's mouth dropped open but no words came out…

"I'm just shittin' ya dice boy." He barked a laugh and began to get up. "Once I get some pants on would ya like a cup of coff-youch!" Tristan let out a deep howl of pain and held tightly onto the bed. His voice reduced to a nervous whisper.

"Duke?"

"…I can't stand."

* * *

"Please. I'll give you anything you want, money, anything. Just please let him go." Bakura pleaded, clutching the doctor's coat and pulling him forward.

"I know this must be hard, but this is what's best for him." The doctor slowly unplucked Bakura's hands from his lapels."

"I've cared for Marik for the past three years. Don't you fucking try to tell me what's best for him."

"Sir, I understand you're upset, but it is essential your friend receives professional medical attention. Miss Wheeler is a wonderful nurse and I know she is doing her very best to ensure your friend regains his health." His voice was kind, but implacable.

"Please just let me see him?"

"Miss Wheeler has requested complete privacy."

"Please…._please_…," Bakura begged desperately.

"Sorry Sir, but I'm going to have to request that you leave."

"Okay…okay…I'll go quietly," Bakura said, feigning compliance.

But he didn't. He ran.

A torrent of heat surged through his body as he raced across the hospital. He was well aware that they'd probably already called the security guards to catch him and drag him out; but he didn't care. He needed to see Marik**, a**nd he wouldn't leave until he did so.

He screamed Marik's name as loud as he could, a fierce scream that sent the mentally unstable convulsing and shambling in their cells, he could hear their hollow screams faintly through the thick doors.

Suddenly, between his own hot shuddering breaths, he heard something else, a small, broken voice coming from the end of the corridor.

"Bakura?" Hearing his friend's voice, he looked quickly around and located the door. Although Bakura did not know it, Marik had been transferred the day before to these maximum security – padded cells.

"Marik? Marik? I'm here. I came for you."

"Bakura please, you have to help me." It's was as though someone had run a knife through Bakura's heart. He couldn't see Marik, the only window into the room was a caged square at the top of the door, but his voice sounded empty. Even at his worst, Marik was always full of life, even on those nights when he would scream and cry trying to fight back against his other-self, he was still _whole. _Now he sounded vacant,as if he was not fully present.

Bakura stretched up onto the tips of his toes and leant against the door, he reached out a gentle shaking hand, and it was met with cold fingers through the bars. Bakura clutched at him, squeezing tightly, like a drowning man holding desperately onto his last ounce of air.

" Serenity, she's going to –" Marik broke into a desperate whimper.

"It's okay Marik I'll get you out of here. I said I would look after you and I promise I will. I promise." Bakura ground out. He let go of Marik's hands and started violently ramming the door. It wouldn't budge, but the noise alerted the searching security staff to his position and several ran around the corner, hands outstretched to grab him.

Bakura screamed a last strangled goodbye, as he fled, only just managing to break through the security exit before being seized by the guards.

Shaking, he hid behind a dumpster for a few minutes to catch his breath and make sure the coast was clear.

For the second time, Bakura broke down and wept.

* * *

There was a thong in professor Yami's desk.

It was pink and lacy…

And he could smell it from here.

Reluctantly he picked up a ruler that lay atop his desk and attempted to fish (an appropriate word) for the thong, trying to manoeuvre the ruler through one of its giant leg-holes.

He then, (holding his nose and trying his hardest to keep the foul smelling lingerie as far away from him as he could) made his way across the classroom. Very few things made Yami squeamish, but unhygienic panties were right up there with the time back in high school when Mana had declared to a particularly strict teacher "if you don't let me go to the bathroom right now I'll bleed on the floor."

If he wasn't gay already he was sure that a lifetime with Mana would have turned him.

Thinking about Mana lifted his spirits. He had actually booked their trip to Egypt a little early this year upon discovering that Mana and Mahad were performing their Magic tour only a few miles away from where the class would be staying.

He smiled, unable to hide his pleasure at the thought of seeing his two friends once again. Unfortunately it was at this moment that one of his students decided to walk through the door. It was Yugi.

"Hey sorry I think I left my coat –" he paused, wrinkling his nose. "What the hell is that smell…"

Yugi didn't know that Yami was reminiscing about the good times with his two best friends; all he saw was his professor, smiling wistfully at a fusty smelling pink thong.

Yami wanted to say something, something along the lines of 'I can explain', unfortunately the professor was fully aware that there was no adequate explanation for why he was hanging a pair of gigantic panties off his ruler like a flag and so instead he opted to match Yugi's own dumbfounded silence.

"Er –" "Yea, I er." "I think I left my coat in here at the end of last lesson I was wondering if it's still..." Yugi finished awkwardly.

"Yes, I picked it up from underneath the table and put it behind my desk for you," Yami pointed to the desk, unfortunately force of habit dictated that he used the hand holding the 'panty-flag' which was now flapping majestically making Yami look like he had just declared war upon a woman's lingerie store.

There was another moment of painful silence, before Yugi walked uneasily over to the desk to collect his coat and Yami hurried to finally dispose of those god-awful pants. Seriously what did that girl keep in them, a skunk?

He turned back to Yugi who seemed to be contemplating saying something to soften the atmosphere before he left the classroom.

"Does this…happen a lot?"

"Far too often," replied Yami, and Yugi laughed. "Although I must concede that this has been a particularly memorable occasion." He gestured to the bin, the foul stench seemed to be coming off of it like cartoon stink lines. Yami made a mental note to burn the contents of the bin at the first conceivable opportunity.

"Sorry about my essay by the way."

"Yes, I was meaning to ask you about that, it didn't seem up to your usual standard?"

Yugi replied a bit awkwardly, "it's been a really difficult time," he sighed, face downcast; "my best friend has recently discovered that his sister is very sick and may lose her sight, he's been falling to pieces. There's an operation but it's really expensive, we've all been trying to raise money…I've been looking for part-time work…," he trailed off.

Yami looked shocked, "How terrible, if there is anything I can do, please don't hesitate to let me know."

"Thank you, that's very kind, I'm on my way to see him now." Yugi finished, starting to turn away.

"Can I offer you a lift?"

After a little persuasion, Yugi accepted and Yami drove him to Tristan's apartment. The drive was pleasant as during initial small-talk they discovered a common enthusiasm for the KaibaCorp video game 'Duel Monsters'. The remainder of the journey was spent amusing themselves with discussion of their favourite creatures; interestingly they shared an affinity for spellcaster types.

Later that evening, Yami sat with a glass of wine and considered his favourite student.

He had thought the young man was physically appealing for some time and had long since recognised and admired Yugi's kindness and inner strength. Today he had discovered something more; Yugi clearly possessed a strong sense of honour and exhibited both loyalty and selflessness where his friends were concerned. These were traits which Yami found admirable and led him to re-evaluate Yugi, now esteeming him even more highly. They also had much in common, dimly he felt like this could prove dangerous… he hadn't realised till now that he might start to feel such temptation. He couldn't really sort out all that he was feeling, but he knew enough to be aware that it was highly inappropriate.

* * *

Why did he ever let Mokuba go to that fucking interview?

The issue wasn't Mokuba's newfound popularity, _that_ had proved to be a great asset for the company. Aside from the fact that Mokuba was now spending twice as much money on hair care products, it had actually been a bonus. More teenagers were buying KaibaCorp products than ever before. Mokuba was now receiving nearly a hundred fan letters a day, mostly from sappy American girls - the primary readers of that cheap, tasteless,trash. If his balls hadn't already dropped, Kaiba would have worried about him becoming the next Justin Bieber.

No, the issue was what Mokuba had _implied_.

The headline that had previously been printed in that low-budget woman's magazine hadn't drawn much attention. Of course he'd been asked about it by some reporters, but after a few scathing remarks about their intrusion into his private life and no further evidence found to support the rumour, the media had all but forgotten about it.

Now there _was_ a problem. Until today, Kaiba had been unaware that throughout the entire process the one person who had actually believed the fucking gossip was Mokuba.

Unfortunately Mokuba believed that he and Joey were dating, even more regrettably these thoughts seemed to have crossed over into his interview. Whilst he hadn't outright confirmed the tales, when asked about his elder brother's romantic life Mokuba had replied with a wink; 'well, we've both heard the rumours'. It was truly un-fucking-believable.

When later questioned about this (with Kaiba carefully striving for control). Mokuba had just shrugged and replied, "Sorry Seto, it's just…you do seem stare at Joeyan awful lot." Kaiba had reassured him that this was purely out of irritation and not the result of any repressed romantic or sexual feelings.

But it was too late; a media shit-storm had erupted and so he now had no choice but to attend a press conference and put these slanderousrumours to rest once and for all.

He grimaced, reassuring himself that everything would settle down soon enough. Joey was leaving; it would all die off and be forgotten about as soon as some new scandal came along.

Kaiba had found a note from Joey on his desk earlier that day; he was quitting university to get a job and would be staying with Tristan until further notice. It would mean he no longer had the time to look after Mokuba - so would be unable to fulfil his side of the bargain.

Kaiba was sure he was glad about this. He told himself how much happier he would be once that loud, brainless, vulgar mutt was gone from his life. And he repeated this over and over again until he was almost positive that it was true.

Grimacing, Kaiba pulled the folder containing his sales reports out and flicked through it in an attempt to distract himself. Business was going well; KaibaCorp had experienced yet another rise in sales and Kaiba was pleased to discover that he had finally overtaken that bastard Zigfried in the overseas female demographic.

He snorted to himself, ironically the only downside of Joey's departure was that along with Mokuba's current notoriety, the rumours he was on his way to cease had actually increased KaibaCorp sales by a sizable margin. Mokuba had bought in teenagers, Joey, young women and now there was a new demographic - his progress report staff suspected it was comprised of gay men.

Kaiba bit his lip thoughtfully; he would be lying to himself if he didn't admit that this created a bit of a dilemma. Aside from looking after his brother, Seto Kaiba was a businessman above all else.

In addition to these mercenary matters, Kaiba couldn't helpbut think of Joey on a more personal level. He thought of that devastated look in his eyes when he found out about his sister, he refused to imagine what he'd do if anything like that happened to Mokuba.

Perhaps he could suffer a little inconvenience.

"Driver!"

"Yes Mr Kaiba?"

"Turn this car around."

* * *

Bakura lay back in his bath and considered, Ryou had been trying to help.

He would spend hours carefully preparing him a meal, buying the ingredients out of what little money he had, to try and force him to eat. Bakura would watch him sometimes, the soft frame of his body gently cutting carrots and stirring soup. He would see him carefully arranging the food on a tray, the soft crease in his brow as he added the finishing touches and neatly laid out napkins, forks and knives. He made it seem like it was special.

Everyday Bakura would sit, staring…emptily at the lovely meal Ryou had prepared. He would have to watch Ryou's hopeful expression slowly fade, as he shook his head and pushed the food away.

Part of Bakura wanted Ryou to react, to scream at him, to throw the food in his face, to tell him he was worthless.

But Ryou didn't. Of course he didn't. Gentle Ryou - quietly picked up the bowl and scraped the food into the bin, whispering; "I guess we'll just have to try again tomorrow."

Bakura stared at his reflection in the tepid water.

His sallow skin stretched tautly across his face, which was now thin and haggard, a result of restless nights and overwhelming anxiety. He cupped a pool of water in his hands and splashed it upon himself, but the image remained the same. He was consumed by Marik, he needed to save him. He had _promised _he wouldn't let anything happen to him.

What was he going to tell Odion and Ishizu who had struggled for years and worked so hard to try and give Marik a normal life? A chance at happiness after all the misery he had suffered.

He waited until the water got cold. He didn't feel anything.

When he finally came out, a towel slung carelessly around his hips, Ryou was waiting and smiled at him. "Nice bath?" Bakura didn't respond.

"Your hairs still soaking," Bakura shrugged, he couldn't seem to care and hadn't even bothered to dry himself.

"Please, you'll catch a cold" He fetched a towel from the other room; "let me do it for you."

Ryou softly ran a towel through his hair, starting at the ends, catching the cold drips of water which trickled down Bakura's naked back. His hands were visibly shaking as he rubbed over the muscular shoulders, massaging the towel soothingly up Bakura's neck and into the thickness of his hair.

Bakura couldn't pretend he wasn't getting pleasure from it, the feel of Ryou's hands stroking rhythmically against his wet back.

It filled the emptiness, the consuming hollow ache within him. Even if it was just a temporary illusion he wanted the release, wanted friction and _heat._

"Now do the front," he growled huskily, grabbing Ryou roughly by the arm, turning himself round and closing the space between them. For a moment, Bakura just studied him, the gentle curves of his face, lips parted, pulsing with the inflow of hot blood. His eyes were soft and unwittingly inviting, warm hot chocolate in winter. A momentary tenderness towards him swept across Bakura's mind but he squashed it quickly, unwilling to dissect it. For a second he fought it, tried his hardest to smother these feelings and isolate himself once again. But then he felt Ryou's trembling body press against him…and he couldn't help it…he succumbed.

Bakura kissed him, a desperate _burning_ kiss.

Ryou swallowed him in, licking and pushing, letting out wrecked gasps as Bakura forced their bodies together and bit the soft flesh just below Ryou's ear.

And if Bakura realised what this might mean to Ryou, he ignored it. He told himself that he _need__ed _this. That he needed to be held and touched. Needed to feel Ryou buck and shake and fall to pieces beneath him. Needed to pretend for just one night that his world wasn't falling apart in front of him, that not everything was fucked.

He needed to _forget._

* * *

**Author notes: I predict an M rating next chapter.**

**Fun fact: The girl who left her pants in Yami's desk was the big cheerleader from the Duke Devlin episodes. **

**I have no fucking clue what I was on when I wrote the Yami bit XD. I hope it was funny as opposed to just…scary. XD**

**Whump!Marik next chapter :(. **

**A big thank you to my new Beta Reader: EvilMidget6. Her story is fucking awesome and you should all go check it out :D. **

**And of course an even bigger thank you to: Yami's Devil, Pharaoh Silver, yamiXyugi-setoXjou-4ever, naomi, KingOfGames001, lady Alexas, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Amaris the Dark Mage, SerenePanic, Shadow Realm Triforce , TimeAndRhythmDoesIndeedSleep , Doragon-chan,** **GracefullyDestructive, iNsAnE nO bAkA, EgyptsBlackRose, EvilMidget6, Zambino and of course lovemondotrasho.**

**Review and Yami will let you be his oil slave ;O. **


	10. The Perks of Being a Slash Fan

**CHAPTER 10**

**A/N: This is going to be re-occurring point, but it is one I feel needs to be made. Serenity's behavior is for a reason, a reason you shall find out later and a reason I think is fairly legitimate. Once again I like Serenity's character and I'm not just trying to bash her by making her insane :).**

* * *

Bad luck is often said to come in three's, so it was therefore inevitable that following Yugi's first awkward encounter with Yami a second should arise soon afterwards.

The second occurrence happened when Yugi was out to purchase a swimsuit for the trip to Egypt.

He had given it some thought, or at least he had given some thought to Tea's tastes and had decided that the best way to win over her affection and show her how rugged and masculine he had become would be to buy something a little… eye-catching.

He already assumed that Yami would be wearing some kind of leather ensemble and realized that the only way he could compete with that, would be to make a fashion statement of his own.

So he had decided to purchase the shop's signature piece.

From the front it looked like his penis had been encased in a big silver porcupine and from the back it made him look like he'd had his ass crack vajazzled.

They called it 'The Beast in Bondage'. Yugi was sure it looked _great._

It was definitely extravagant. Sure it was a little startling, but Tea loved leather on Yami, why shouldn't she love it equally on him. Yugi had read an article in Men's Health magazine which had assured the reader that girls _loved_ this kind of thing, apparently they found it _really _sexy and Yugi was sold.

Besides, that's where grandpa got all his best tips.

"Yugi? I didn't know you shopped here," He heard a low gruff laugh. It was professor Yami holding several pairs of leather trousers, a leather jacket, a large pyramid-shaped pendant and…was that fluffy handcuffs?

'Oh God,' thought Yugi, 'Hide the trunks! Hide the trunks! Hide the trunks!' Quickly he stuffed them deeper into his bag.

"Hi there professor! Yea uh, I was just looking for a bathing suit to wear at the beach on our trip."

"Ah undergarments!" He said enthusiastically. "Not thinking of leaving those in my desk I hope," he gave a throaty laugh and Yugi died a little inside as he struggled for a reply.

"Uhh…" Nope. There was nothing he wanted to say to that.

If Yugi hadn't been staring so determinedly at the floor, he would have noticed that Yami continued to smile wickedly, a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. Fortunately, he also missed the fact that Yami was admiring the pink blush that risen in Yugi's cheeks.

"Yugi, I was joking," He said.

"Oh, uh yea. I knew that," Yugi chuckled weakly, hiding a sigh of relief.

"So…did you find anything?" Yami arched a questioning eyebrow.

"Uhum… yea I think so." Here Yugi looked a little furtive.

"Do you want a second opinion?" Yami asked trying to be helpful. "It's always hard to know how things look from the back," he continued seriously.

"No I think I'm fine. Thank you anyway." Yugi responded hastily (he told himself he wouldn't want Yami to be jealous of how manly he looked… it was definitely not because he knew that Yami would look better…not at all).

The two said their goodbyes and Yugi left the shop, thankfully.

'That couldn't have _been_ more awkward,' he thought.

Yugi should have known better than to tempt fate.

* * *

"So what you're saying is you want _me_ –"

"Yes."

"to pretend –"

"Yes."

"to date _you –_"

"Yes."

"–and if I do this you'll pay for my sisters eye-operation?"

"Yes."

Joey stared at Kaiba for a second, trying to read his expression – did he really mean this? When he was first contacted by Rowland on Kaiba's behalf, requesting a meeting; Joey had assumed it would be for the purpose of formally terminating their living agreement. That Kaiba had a different proposal in mind he would never have guessed, particularly not _this!_

"And you're serious?"

"This is becoming tiresome, yes I'm serious." Kaiba rolled his eyes, sighing impatiently.

Joey still couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. This was not the Kaiba he knew; this did not seem anything like that Kaiba. Something had to be up.

"Are you out of your fuckin' mind?"

"You're not interested?" Kaiba made a movement - pretending he would end the meeting.

"No! No! Of course I am, it's just…" Joey ran an anxious hand through his hair, "you'd better not be playing games with me rich-boy!" Joey's eyes darkened, his normally cheerful expression turning threatening. Kaiba responded by fixing the most bored looking expression he could muster onto his face.

"Cause if I found out you're fucking with me, with my chance to save Serenity's sight…"

Kaiba rolled his eyes at Joey. He tried to smother the pang of admiration he suddenly felt for him, with a snide comment. Annoyingly he felt empathy for the fierce protectiveness with which Joey looked after his sister.

"Typical yapping hound, all bark and no bite."

Joey scowled and flipped him the finger.

"Is it really so difficult to believe that I'm serious?" Kaiba asked wearily.

"Hmm let me think?" Joey ignored the guilty voice reminding him that Kaiba had looked after his meals when Joey had previously been in trouble "Yes!"

"As I already explained, KaibaCorp sales have increased substantially since Mokuba suggested to the press that you and I are dating. Whilst this wouldn't normally entice me enough to engage in such a stunt, the rumour has resulted in us overtaking SchroederCorp in their most significant demographic. Only a fool would turn down such an opportunity to out-sell his lead business rival." Kaiba explained curtly.

"This is just so fucking weird!" Joey rubbed his face in disbelief, looking first down at himself and then at Kaiba.

Kaiba was wearing an expensive looking suit and owned the most successful gaming company in the world; Joey had run out of clothes and was now wearing trousers he hadn't touched since he was fifteen. Earlier today he had also arm-wrestled Tristan over who would get the last piece of bread to have as toast for breakfast.

He looked back at Kaiba who was leaning against the window, looking at him intently; his eyes like blue gunmetal were fixed in a hard stare upon Joey's face. To be honest it made him feel a little uncomfortable. It was then that another issue occurred to him.

"I won't have to… actually_ do_ anything, will I?"

"Well of course you'll have to do things you can't just expect something for nothing -" Joey groaned, trust Kaiba to take what he said literally. He tried another tactic.

"No-no, I mean we won't have to do…" Joey considered how he could put what he meant in the most delicate way possible. Unfortunately the only expression he could come up with that conveyed his meaning was 'porking' (one of Tristan's favorites) and so instead had to settle for mumbling "ya'know…_stuff."_

Kaiba looked at him incredulously lowering his head in disbelief before speaking in a slow, condescending manner.

"No Joey. I'm not hiring you as a prostitute."

"Nah… I never thought that," Joey lied, "I was just talking about kissing and stuff."

"The only extraneous activities you'll have to contend with will be dinner parties and press conferences," Kaiba gave a rough cough, diverting his attention away from Joey, who's tight - 'size too small clothing'- bought back unfortunate memories of the time he had washed him in the bath tub. "Nothing of a….sexual nature."

Joey let out an inward sigh of relief and tried to pass the whole thing off with a joke.

"Figures. Probably not enough room anyway, what with that pole so far up your ass."

"Yea right, _my _ass," Kaiba scoffed

"What's that supposed to mean?" Joey narrowed his eyes.

"I always thought it was the dog that remained on all fours."

"Fuck you Kaiba," Joey was becoming irritated.

As usual Kaiba was determined to have the last word, "I thought we just agreed that was your role."

Abruptly he realized he was enjoying all of this far too much. "Anyway, I have wasted too much of my valuable time as it is, make up your mind."

It didn't take Joey very long to consider. He would do anything for Serenity. Even put up with being the eye-candy on rich-boys arm.

"Yea, alright. You've got yourself a deal."

Talk about mixing business and pleasure, he thought as he shook Kaiba's hand.

* * *

Mokuba had never been happier. He had gone from the boring mousey boy with few friends, to the most popular kid in school. Suddenly everyone was interested in what he had to say and everything he said was clever and witty (sometimes even when he hadn't meant to be). His long hair, which had previously been described as 'shaggy' was now a virulent lion's mane, the staple of his bad-boy image. The tabloids couldn't get enough of him; neither could most of the girls at his school. To summarize: if this were 'high school musical', Mokuba would be Troy Bolton.

Mokuba - who had spent much of his life guarded under the careful eye of his brother, flourished in this new-found limelight. Flourished in this context meant he took advantage of all the attention and used it to pick up girls.

Things had been running relatively smoothly, he'd take the girls out shopping and then to dinner; they all seemed to enjoy it, and his hormones told him that he did too.

Seto naturally wasn't too happy about this, Mokuba was having to constantly remind him that he was sixteen and it was normal for him to be going on a couple of dates. Despite this his brother still voiced his disapproval at every given opportunity (something about cooties usually) and he had even sent one of the KaibaCorp's body guards with him every time he went out. The goon would sit opposite his date and stare menacingly at her, unloading and reloading a gun. Unsurprisingly this mood-setter made it difficult for him to fit in any canoodling.

As Mokuba entered the classroom door he thought his luck was in. Seated at a desk near the back of the room was Rebecca, she was reading. He could just make out the title – it was a physics book 'The Road to Reality' by Roger Penrose, Mokuba recognized the cover from his brother's bookshelf. Teddy bear aside, Mokuba had admired her from afar for quite a few years and now his head had finally swollen big enough that he thought he stood a chance.

Squaring his shoulders and adjusting his leather jacket, he flicked his hair back before swaggering over.

"Hey Rebecca!" 'Damn, that sounded too eager,' he thought to himself, 'play it cool Mokuba, play it cool.'

"Hey," She replied, not looking up from her book.

"So I was thinking," he began, leaning against the wall and folding his arms, assuring himself that this was probably the coolest anyone had _ever_ looked. "How would you like it, if I took you out on a date sometime?"

"No thank you."

"Yea I was thinking I'd pick you up at eight, we'd see a movie, have some dinner," Mokuba clearly hadn't listened to her first reply.

"That's really nice, but no thank you."

"You're welcome sweetheart… "Suddenly what she had said filtered through to him. "Wait what?" That was clearly not the reply he had been expecting.

"I can't go out with you tonight." Finally Rebecca looked at him.

"Why?"

"I'm busy."

"Well how about some other day this week?" Mokuba was starting to feel indignant.

"I'm busy all week."

"Doing what?"

_"Revising,"_ She replied snippily.

Mokuba heard a few of the girls behind him giggle and the word nerd was thrown about. Rebecca, hearing this, blushed and tried to conceal her face by raising her book.

"Come on, one night won't kill you. Don't be such a geek." Rebecca slammed her book shut, snatched up her things and stormed out of the door. Mokuba followed her, "Aww come on, don't be like that…it was just a joke."

As they made it into the corridor, she swung round to face him, _"Some_ of us have to work hard if we want to succeed, do you know how many hours I have to put in to maintain my scholarship at this school? We don't _all _have rich brothers who can get us anything we want."

Mokuba began to feel a little guilty, but then he recalled some previous 'advice' Joey had given him.

He remembered asking Joey about this a couple of month's back, after watching him get slapped in the face by some blonde woman. "If you're really interested in a girl, you're gonna have to take a lot of slaps, before you eventually get a kiss," (unfortunately for Mokuba Joey left out the part where sometimes all you got was more slaps).

Suddenly everything became much clearer, she _didn't_ hate him…she was just playing hard to get.

Mokuba smirked.

Alright then Rebecca, challenge accepted.

* * *

He blinked the sweat from his eyes, lips rasping against the thick strip of cotton that was wrapped tightly around his mouth, concealing his small intakes of pain as the rub of leather straps burnt against his flesh. Serenity had requested he be stripped naked, to ensure he wasn't hiding any weaponry, anything that could put her at risk, or help him escape the chair.

"Now I know that you have a dirty little secret," Serenity walked around him, tittering like a school girl. "You see, Bakura's notes told me, that you're not alone in there."

"You," She poked his nose playfully, "have a dark side. A 'yami' I think he called it. And because I'm just _so_ kind, I'm going to try and draw it out of you."

Marik upon hearing this wrenched his body forward in the chair, trying to lunge free. When he still couldn't escape, he began to scream futilely behind his gag. Serenity stopped this with a sharp slap to his face, ordering him to 'behave'.

"Now I'm sure you're wondering how I'm going to do that. This…," Serenity gestured to a small flask on the table, "is supposed to contain a sedative."

Her voice was overpoweringly sweet, like thick treacle clogging his windpipe.

"It doesn't of course." She smiled brightly, "I've prepared a much more interesting cocktail for you."

She walked over to the small table that lay next to Marik's bed, on it were several glasses and a packet of what looked like white power. She picked up the packet and opened it, scoping out a small amount of the substance and placing it in the bottom of one of the boiling tubes. "This is Gamma Hydroxybutyric acid, more commonly known as GHB," She dangled it in front of him "It's mostly used as date-rape drug. You wouldn't believe how much of this stuff we confiscate." She giggled girlishly and Marik winced.

"Mixed with alcohol the consequences can be lethal." She dipped a syringe into the tube and placed it carefully on the table. "Marik, don't look so worried. You're my special project, my furry little lab rat." She stroked his hair, as if he were a small animal. "I have no intention of killing _you_."

"I'm only going to use a drop or two of alcohol - to speed up the effects." She picked up a roll of blue elastic and wrapped it around his arm, pulling tightly until his blue veins were pulsing violently beneath a thin stretch of skin.

"I think we're ready now," She pressed the needle against his flesh; Marik winced at its touch, the metal was cold like the breath of the grave.

"Now, now. This will only sting for second." Marik recalled Bakura telling him that if a doctor or nurse ever said that, what they really meant was, 'this is gonna hurt like fuck'. His insides writhed as she pushed it slowly inside of him, and he gasped as a sharp jolt of pain hit him, it was like being plunged into ice-cold water.

"And now we wait." She pulled up a chair in front of him, crossing her arms like a nursery teacher waiting for her class to sit still.

Marik tensed his body in anticipation; he kept himself as rigid as possible, trying to create the illusion of control. He would get through this; he wouldn't give in to her. He thought of Bakura. Bakura would save him. He had never let him down before.

He repeated this to himself, he could feel his consciousness wavering. Soon the world became nothing more than a mangled blur, colours whirling until he heaved with nausea.

Marik started shaking uncontrollably in his chair, his begging audible through the gag, becoming more and more broken as Serenity moved closer.

For a second she thought she saw the glint of another awareness in his eyes.

He began to vomit uncontrollably. The dark, acidic brown of half-digested food, was dribbling down his chin, warm and putrefying onto his chest. He gagged - his body convulsing violently as he began to choke.

"…_.Marik..."_

A serpentine whisper. It was him. The _other_ him. But he couldn't…wouldn't let it take over.

He bit down hard on his tongue.

"Help! HELP!" Serenity called banging on the door.

That was the last thing Marik heard before he blacked out.

* * *

Ryou looked up at him, his brown eyes soft and vulnerable. Bakura took him in, Ryou's slender body pressed hard against his own. He smelt sweet and warm and Bakura couldn't help but inhale him in another devastating kiss.

He dropped his towel revealing the smooth arc of his hips; Ryou watched his every movement, eyes brightening with desire. Seeing this Bakura exhaled heavily, taking Ryou's hand and running it over him, before gently leading him to the bedroom.

Gripping Ryou's shoulders roughly, he pushed him onto the bed. There was a moment of silence as their eyes met and an expression of softness swept fleetingly across Bakura's face. His hand hovered above the curve of Ryou's cheek and he ran his slender fingers along the jawline tenderly, before growling and pulling them together once again.

Bakura kissed him heavily, a hard clash of lips and tongues and teeth and pulled Ryou's shirt roughly over his head. Longing turned to outright hunger as he ground desperately against him, the hot friction making him so hard it _hurt._

Bakura fumbled clumsily with Ryou's belt, dragging his trousers off and throwing them to the floor. Urgently, he ran his hand along the underside of Ryou's thigh and slipped it over his cock, pulling slowly and rhythmically until it grew hard in his palm.

"How's that?" Ryou just whimpered in response, bucking helplessly into Bakura's hand.

Bakura smiled and pulled away, he began blistering hot kisses down Ryou's smooth body; over his lean bare chest and onto the soft flesh of his inner thigh. Lowering his head he licked a long wet strip over Ryou, who let out a strained _"aah," _as a shiver ran like electricity through his body. Bakura watched, his eyes darkening with lust as he saw Ryou's pale body toss with pleasure beneath him.

He smirked, a cold and hungry looking smile, before his mouth closed over the head of Ryou's cock, pushing it deep inside of him. He sucked and licked desperately and Ryou couldn't help himself, he clawed at Bakua's chest, pouring soft, grateful noises into the warm air.

Bakura waited until Ryou looked like he couldn't take it anymore, before moving backwards, fumbling in the bedside drawer and pulling out a small bottle. He poured a little of the contents onto his hand, rubbing it carefully over his long fingers.

"Turn over,"Bakura ordered, watching hungrily as Ryou turned his slender body tentatively on the bed. He placed one hand on the smooth arch of Ryou's shoulder, rubbing gently as he stretched his fingers and pushed them slowly inside of him. Ryou clutched a handful of bed-sheets At first it was uncomfortable, almost painful but Ryou couldn't take his mind off the fact that it was _Bakura's_ hand down there. _ Bakura's_ fingers working inside of him and so he couldn't help it when his body _twisted in pleasure_, arching at the touch.

Bakura ran his hand soothingly over Ryou's back, brought his lips up to his ear and whispered softly "You okay?"

Ryou was becoming more used to the feeling and nodded slowly, he looked back into Bakura's dark eyes, muted and sultry in the dim light. He wanted this, he wanted to feel Bakura shiver and shake inside of him, he wanted to hear his low moans, make him arch and thrust and come undone at his hands.

"Do it." He said softly "please."

Bakura nodded, gripping his hips, holding them down fiercely and slowly lowering himself into Ryou who let out a gasp of pain.

Bakura shut his eyes, gasping wordlessly as he sank fully in, because it felt just _so fucking good. _His world was consumed in a senseless haze - all the pain, all the self-loathing and worthlessness, the knowledge that he couldn't keep his promise, the sound of Marik's broken voice and the feel of his cold fingers through the bars - disappeared into an intangible ecstasy.

Feeling Ryou's body un-tense a little, he began to slowly rock his hips forward. The friction was almost unbearable; and Bakura hissed a curse under his breath, as Ryou started to emit small helpless moans of pleasure and they began to move in time.

Ryou gasped as he stroked himself, whimpering needily. Bakura hearing this replaced Ryou's hand with his own, pumping in time with each slick thrust. Breath - hitched and shallow, Ryou let out a small cry, overflowing in the older man's hand, lost in physical sensation.

"Ugh…fuck..." Bakura's entire body shuddered as Ryou tightened around him and his pace increased to quick ferocious bursts. His breath became ragged as he buried himself into the crook of Ryou's neck, an unbearable pressure growing inside of him.

Panting hard, Bakura gave a few more quick thrusts, pulling Ryou's body tightly to his own in one final desperate push, as his own orgasm came crashing through. He bit his lip, and with a sharp intake of breath, clutched Ryou's body tightly, spilling into him.

For a while they both lay there, pulsing heartbeats slowing gradually.

Ryou curled up, a gentle smile crossing his face and placed a soft kiss upon Bakura's forehead before resting his head upon his chest, holding him softly and falling into a deep slumber.

It was then that Bakura realized what he had done. Used soft, sweet little Ryou as a _release. _He hated himself. He had taken advantage of Ryou's feelings. Bakura knew Ryou wanted more from him, but at the moment he was just too empty.

He didn't have anything left to give.

Amidst his thoughts, he heard a small muffled sound as Ryou cuddled closer to him, the soft ends of his hair tickling Bakura's chest. Ryou was _beautiful _and for a second he almost wished he could love him.

* * *

**AN: Firstly I hope the lemon/slash was good; it took me so long to write, so I hope you all enjoyed it. I also hope the Marik stuff wasn't too horrendous. It was horrible to write because he's one of my favorite characters! **

**Secondly, the chronology of this chapter is that all the events took place within a few hours of each other. So Mokuba doesn't know about Joey/Kaiba yet and Serenity doesn't know that Kaiba's paying for her eyesight. They'll all find out in the next chapter ****. **

**Before that, the bonus chapter for 100 reviews and all the awesome support will be coming -'A day in the life of Seto Kaiba'. Hope you all enjoy it as much as the Yami one! **

**A HUGE THANK YOU TO: Neko, Yami's Devil, wordsmithie, TheSecretMarauder, EvilMidget6, Naomi, iNsAnE nO bAkA, KingOfGames001, SerenePanic, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, EgyptsBlackRose, TimeAndRhythmDoesIndeedSleep , Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, Dremagon, Shadow Realm Triforce, Doragon-chan, Amaris the Dark Mage, FangandIggyRule, Zambino and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**And of course a massive thank you to my lovely Beta Reader: EvilMidget6**

**Review and…Yugi will send you 'the Beast in Bondage.' You too can look good at the beach!**


	11. A Day in the Life of Seto Kaiba

**I LOVE YOU ALL ! Thank you so much for one hundred reviews! A MASSIVE THANK YOU to all of you. Hearing your feedback makes writing this story feel worthwhile! I really hope you all enjoy this! **

**Warning: These Diaries are just supposed to be a little fun. They are written to be humorous and therefore are going to be pretty OOC. ****Not really part of the story, more like a fun parody. If you don't like this sort of thing please feel free to skip ^_^.**

**Vaguely based off Bridget Jones Diary and 'The Very Secret Diaries' by Cassandra Claire. 'The Very Secret Diaries' are great, far better than this heap of shit, so go read them :).**

* * *

**Kaiba's Diary**

**4.00 AM:**

Must get up early to do important businessman type things.

**4:15 AM**

Ohh new facebook notification!

**4:20 AM**

Zigfried commented on new relationship status. Pink haired tosser, am not in a relationship 'with my hand'.

**4:45 AM**

Have unliked his profile picture! HA. Am truly mastermind of the corporate world.

**5:00 AM**

All this work is stressful. Think will go take nice bubble bath.

**5:10 AM**

Roland offered to get out rubber-duck. Do not need rubber-duck, have rubber dragon. Much manlier.

**6:00 AM**

Hmm what to wear? Must find something that combines business professionalism with love of buckles.

**8:40 AM**

Finally dressed! Put on best swishy trench-coat. Look v .professional and sexy. Might even be turning self on.

**9:AM**

Back to work.

**9:05 AM**

Joey is up and has changed his facebook name to 'Pamela Handerson.'

Zigfried liked it.

Hate Joey.

**9:20 AM**  
Fired a few people to relive stress.

**10:00 AM**

Mokuba's birthday soon. Maybe will throw him dragon-themed party. Shall ring and find out.

**10:20 AM**

So ungrateful. No one ever offered to throw me a dragon-themed birthday party. Hmmph.

**11: 00 AM**

Eugh, Zigfried tweeted new picture of tacky model girlfriend in skimpy outfit. How does this have over a thousand retweets, when picture of self dressed as scary dragon has none. So unfair.

**11:10 AM**

Have less followers too. Cannot believe this as am much sexier than stick-insect girlfriend. Underdressed hussy - probably uses a band aid as a maxi pad.

Am v. witty. Would probably be stand-up comedian if was not broody CEO.

**12: 00 PM**

Just remembered Mokuba is now dating girls. Shall have to give him quick talk.

**5:00 PM**

Mokuba totally overreacted to educational PowerPoint. If he is going to date girls he needs to know about these things.

**5:10 PM**

Mokuba Is now crying. Maybe labelled close up of vagina was unnecessary. Picture did look a bit like shrivelled gnome.

**5:40 PM**

Joey cheering Mokuba up. Are now watching 'how to train your dragon'. This is silly film. Dragons cannot be trained.

**7:00 PM**

Joey and Mokuba both fallen asleep. If I wasn't a sexy emotionless CEO would probably find this quite sweet.

**7:05 PM**

Mokuba woke up. Gone to get ready for date. Clearly PowerPoint did not have intended effect. Perhaps will give next talk in the form of interpretive dance sequence.

**7:15 PM**

Am not going to watch Joey sleep. Would be v. inappropriate.

**7:40 PM**

Alright maybe just for a bit. Do have duty of care and wouldn't want him to choke or anything on company time.

**8:40 PM**

Joey caught me smelling hair. Told him was concerned about the odour of wet dog.

**9:00 PM**

Joey right in face ranting about something, body was pressed up close to me. Definitely did not find arousing.

**9:40 PM**

Nope, definitely not still aroused.

**9: 55 PM **

Perhaps was more truth to Zigfrieds comment than first thought.

**10:00 PM**

Better go take another cold shower.

* * *

**AN:**

**Once again not a serious addition to the plot, just a little bit of fun and a big thank you to all my wonderful readers and reviewers such as: Darker Clouds, Snowangel701, Ray-Kat-Hollows, cocobyrd87, Yami's Devil, TheAlphaChives, EvilMidget6, Amaris the Dark Mage, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Magi Magi Magician Gal, Shadow Realm Triforce, Opethia, iNsAnE nO bAkA, Doragon-chan, EgyptsBlackRose, Zambino and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**And a second big thank you to my beta reader: EvilMidget6**

**Next bonus chapter is Bakura's diary, so hopefully that will be fun! **

**Review and maybe you'll wake up to find Kaiba smelling your hair ;). **


	12. Meet the Family

**Chapter 11**

**AN: Firstly I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed the previous chapter and everyone that has stuck with this story so far. It makes the experience so enjoyable and it means so much to me that people are reading and enjoying my writing. Once again, a big thank you to all of you guys.**

**Secondly, I'd like to point out that there is an incredibly obvious Harry Potter reference in this chapter. It's one of my favorite lines from the third film and I just couldn't resist putting it in!**

* * *

Tea had always liked Serenity. As much as she loved the guys she hung out with, it was a relief to occasionally talk to someone of her own gender. After all, she could hardly chat to any of the boys about hot guys and bikini waxing (except Duke who apparently waxed his chest…he also had a strange obsession with Channing Tatum).

Tea was also a very bossy young woman and enjoyed being able to provide reassurance and give direction to Serenity, who was - to her mind - still young and naïve. Having grown up as single child, she delighted in playing the role of 'big sister'.

Serenity's operation was scheduled to take place while Tea was on the trip to Egypt, it was for this reason she had been so pleased to see her friend before they left. Serenity was anxious for the operation to be over and get back to work, she was especially eager to continue attending to one particular patient. She called him her 'special project'. Tea smiled, how like Serenity to be so selfless, and show so much concern for the problems of others.

The two girls also talked about the relationship between Joey and Kaiba – their recent hook-up had been spread all over the newspapers – from local to national.

Serenity didn't know Kaiba but had told Tea she was glad Joey had found someone he could be happy with. She thought that he must be a very kind man - after all, he was paying for her eye operation.

Having actually met Seto Kaiba, Tea was a little more surprised. She had always thought Joey hated the CEO, he even ended improbable ideas with the phrase 'yea - that'll happen when I marry Kaiba', to spell out just how unlikely it was. However she was trying to be as supportive as possible. She also figured that Joey had always liked bossy women, and since Kaiba had the emotional stability of a teenage girl on her period, perhaps he suited Joey's tastes just fine.

After spending an enjoyable afternoon with her friend, Tea said her goodbyes and left the room. As she was on her way back through the hospital she spotted a familiar figure ahead of her – it was Bandit Keith. She scowled, remembering his behavior towards Joey. She had long wanted to give him a 'piece of her mind.'

"You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!*" She marched up to him, shoulders shaking with rage.

"Do you know who I've just been to see? Joey's sister! Remember Joey? The guy you tried to beat up – that was the day he found out that she was going blind!" Her voice was fierce and for a second even Bandit Keith was at a loss for words. He turned as though to walk away so she grabbed a handful of his shirt and tried to pull him forcibly towards her.

They stayed like that for a second, Tea's blue eyes fixed upon him, seething with anger.

He raised an eyebrow at her, slowly unplucking her hand, before waving her off with a dismissive; "Whatever princess."

Keith attempted to leave her standing there as he pushed through some nearby double doors into a stairwell.

"Don't you dare walk away from me!" Tea screamed, chasing him up the stairs.

"Fuck you." He snorted.

When she refused to stop following him, he turned around to confront her.

"Look this has been real fun, but I've got shit to do, so kindly fuck off…"

"I will not, I will…" She trailed off as he led her into a small white room.

At its' center was a woman,she was lying on a hospital bed, her stiff pale body hooked up to a drip and a life support machine. Tea froze, lowering her voice she whispered, "Who's this?" For a brief second it almost looked as if Keith winced.

"My mom."

A cold uncomfortable silence fell between them, then Keith sighed and spoke quietly.

"She's been like this since I was little. Just enough brain activity to stop the doctors letting her die." He hung his head, "But it's unlikely that she'll ever wake up."

Tea looked at him in shock, her lecture abruptly halting in the face of this tragic discovery.

"It was pneumococcal meningitis that did it. Gave her a stroke, it's been just me and my five older brothers for the last ten years." For a second he stared down at his mother as if they were the only two in the room and then he leant down to touch her cheek, "I think they've tried to move on. I'm the only one who comes to visit her anymore, I…I miss her."

Tea looked at him. An uneasy coldness fell upon her. How could this be Bandit Keith? Keith was scum, lower than scum, he beat up Joey, he -

She looked at his expression, it was cold and stern but it was free from the biting cruelty that usually contorted it. If anything he looked…fragile.

"Well it doesn't excuse everything…" She chose her words carefully. "But if you need any help… or anyone to talk to…ever. I wouldn't mind listening." Keith nodded absently, his eyes fixed upon his mother's face. Tea thought of her own mother, who called her every day, who had raised her single handed, often going without - to pay for her dance lessons. She looked back at Keith.

"Would you like some time alone with her?" She asked gently.

"Yes." Tea nodded and began to walk towards the door, only stopping when she heard him speak again.

"No." He swallowed. "Please stay…"

She walked over to him and gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, before pulling up a chair and sitting down next to him.

Because regardless of what she had always thought of him, Keith needed somebody.

She didn't mind being that person.

* * *

Yugi had intended to spend the majority of the plane journey to Egypt trying to subtly fall asleep on Tea's cleavage. Unfortunately it transpired that he was so short he had to sit on a cushion to fit his seat-belt and realized that if he couldn't even sit normally, there was no way was he going to be able to mash his head half way across the next seat. So instead he decided to distract himself by musing on the events and revelations of the past week. Serenity's eyesight was going to be saved and everyone was delighted, especially Joey whom Yugi had caught letting out a few relived tears in the men's hospital bathroom. The only real surprise had been that it was Kaiba who had saved the day by offering to pay for the operation now that he was going out with Joey.

Normally Yugi would have been more surprised by this sudden romance, but he was too distracted by his own feelings which reasoned (somewhat over-optimistically) that if Joey had hated Kaiba and they were going out, Tea's lukewarm indifference must really just be a cover-up for a deep animal lust.

With this happy thought he slept through the rest of the plane journey,

As is usual with school trips, when they finally arrived in Egypt, Professor Yami wasn't happy to just let his students settle into their rooms and catch up on the sleep they all so desperately desired. Instead he got them to leave their luggage unpacked in the hotel rooms, so they could spend their first evening star gazing in the Theban Hills.

By the time they reached the hilltops, night was falling fast. Telescopes were handed out and as each individual gazed up into the clear dark sky, a silence fell upon them. An absence of the fumes and pollution that muddied the air of the industrial cities meant the stars were more visible than ever before, and their bright constellations shone like webbed gems across the black sky.

The students were enamored.

All except Yugi. As it turned out, Yugi was shit at star gazing. He had spent the last half an hour mumbling curse words at the telescope (which he was unable to adjust) and he couldn't see anything except a dull, bluish fuzz.

"Do you need some help Yugi?" A dark voice filled air behind him. Yugi looked round, only to come face-to-face with Professor Yami.

For a moment their eyes met and Yugi couldn't help but notice how different Yami looked at night. His eyes seemed endless depths of slanted deep violet, filled with an almost devilish sensuality; although those wicked, laughing eyes were at odds with a face as elegantly and distantly beautiful as a saint.

"Uh…,"Yami's fingers trailed over his cheek as he reached for the telescope and Yugi flushed at the proximity. He ran his hands over Yugi's with an almost sensual slowness, lifting the telescope to his eyes and holding it there. All the while his hands remained gently on Yugi's, whose entire body ran hot beneath the Professor's touch.

"There we go," he said softly, "it should work now," but he didn't move away …

Instead he began to speak, almost wistfully - about the stars, of the constellations and the stories behind them. He talked of the star Andromeda, named for the king's daughter who was chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a great beast, only to be saved by the brave Perseus. Then he told of Argo Navis, named for the ship sailed by Jason and his Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, said to have the ability to guide sailors out of even the most deadly of storms.

The girls listened enchanted and Yugi tried to concentrate, but the blood was thumping in his ears - Yami's body was still alarmingly close to his own. He could feel each breath the elder man took; feel Yami's hard chest graze against him and his warm breath roll softly down his neck with each smooth exhalation. He gave an involuntary shudder and quickly lifted his head, suddenly aware that the entire class were staring at them with wide eyes.

"You know I might be having a few problems with my telescope," a girlish voice suddenly piped up from the horde.

"Me too!"

"And me!"

Suddenly an entire chorus of girls were all swearing blind that their telescopes had miraculously malfunctioned and they could only be fixed with Professor Yami's help.

Yugi felt Yami's body tense, lingering for just a moment longer, before he let out a low gruff laugh and stood up.

"Okay girls. I'll see to you all now!"

* * *

Duke sat on the side of the curb opposite the garage and waited for Tristan to finish work. It had been a few days and Tristan still was having pain sitting down and walking (as much as he tried to hide it from his tough mechanic buddies). So he had booked an appointment with the doctor and Duke, as the suspected cause of this problem had volunteered to go with him.

He slipped a cigarette between his lips absentmindedly and watched the smooth reams of smoke spool into the air; before turning to Tristan, who was leaning over the engine of a car, shirt off in the hot sun, humming tunelessly to himself.

If Duke was being fair, Tristan really wasn't that bad looking.

The first thing Duke noticed was Tristan's body, far more powerful that his own, each curve of muscle accentuated by the beads of sweat that clung to it, glistening in the hot sun. His hair was also looking pretty good, whilst it was usually pointy- like a boner held together with too much gel, the humidity and hard labor had flattened it so it now lay messily across his forehead, casting a heavy shadow over his face and causing his usually warm eyes to look dark and decadent.

Broad shoulders and strong back tapered down into narrow hips and as he moved lower into the machine his muscles flexed beneath smooth tan skin.

"Fucking combustion engine" He heard Tristan growl angrily to himself. Duke smirked; he had never focused on Tristan's voice before. In his mind it had always been slow and bumbling, but hearing it now there was deepness to it, a rough masculinity he had never noticed before.

Duke sighed, if he was being fair, Tristan was actually fucking hot.

* * *

Joey was feeling happy with life. His sister had been moved to the best hospital in Tokyo and for the first time since he could remember things were improving between him and his mum. Not only had she hugged him (the last time that happened was seven years ago), but she had also done something Joey had never thought she'd do. She had told him how proud she was.

It felt good; there was a new warmth in his life, an acceptance he had once longed for.

It was for this reason that he decided it was finally a good time to confront his dad. The man had never been stable, but he still hadn't called Serenity to find out how she was doing - and that was unacceptable.

Joey was supposed to be shopping. Kaiba had given him some money to buy a swanky suit for a posh dinner party his arch-business rival Zigfried von blah was holding tomorrow. Kaiba had been adamant that Joey look his best and apparently Tristan's old prom tux just wouldn't cut it (even with the 'lucky stains' that Tristan constantly bragged about). They had already taken all his measurements that morning and Kaiba had instructed Roland to go with him and 'make sure he didn't buy something hideously inappropriate' (Joey's immediate suggestion for his evening wear had been Eddie Murphy's leather one-piece from 'Delirious').

But instead he was here, looking up nervously at his dad's house.

His dad hadn't always been like he was now. Thinking about their current relationship - it was hard to believe, but there was a time when his family had been happy. He couldn't remember it, but he'd seen the pictures. Of his mum and dad, much younger than they were now, holding hands and smiling, an infant Serenity, wrapped in muslin and sleeping against their mum's chest. He was there too, usually in the center clutching tightly to his mum's arm, his father's hand firmly on his shoulder.

He thought of this as he approached the door, looking up at the patchy grey concrete, rife with moss from water spoilage.

Apprehensively, Joey moved closer to knock, only to discover that the door was unlocked. He pushed it tentatively and entered.

The first thing he noticed was the smell, foul and oily…unclean. A sudden feeling of sickness dropped to the pit of his stomach, as stared into the apartment. It was filthy; molding takeaway boxes and broken glass littered the floor, which now had a foul yellowing quality to it, likely caused by the clumps of dried vomit that stuck together beneath molting carpet.

Then he saw his dad. Sprawled across the sofa, his face tilted upward so that Joey could see the whites of his eyes through two thin slits beneath his eyelids.

"Dad," Joey's voice carried more bravery than he felt. There was no response, so he continued more loudly, eventually leaning over to shake his him. After the third shake he finally awakened.

There was soullessness to his eyes, two dull black pits that seemed to stretch back for an eternity, held tight between layers of thick wrinkling skin. His face was red, slick with sweat and patches of broken veins formed fleshy webs across his cheeks. He'd lost hair since Joey had last seen him, except on his face which was covered by rough grey stubble. His mouth moved only slightly to let out a deep, incoherent gurgle.

Joey swallowed, suddenly reluctant to speak. Clenching his fists tightly he attempted to broach the reason for his visit.

"Dad, what are ya doin' here? Why haven't ya been to see Serenity?" At this his father stood, stumbling forward, his flabby arms swinging almost ape-like beneath him.

"Serenity? She's with your bitch of a mam ain't she." Joey winced, fighting back anger.

"She was sick dad. We thought her eye-sight was gonna go we –"His father's face remained vacant and disinterested and Joey gritted his teach, continuing desperately. "Didn't ya get any of the calls?" His dad didn't reply, he just let out a low guttural moan and rolled off the coach, face first onto the floor.

Upon seeing this, something changed in Joey, he didn't forgive him, for not contacting Serenity, hell for his entire miserable childhood… he couldn't. But the anger had faded and been replaced with reluctant sympathy. Despite the size of his body, (which looked as if it had caved in beneath heavy rolls of fat), his dad appeared so small and fragile on the floor, almost vulnerable. He bent over, recoiling slightly as the combined odors of unwashed body and clothes, stale alcohol and urine crashed into him. "Shit," he breathed, this was worse than usual and an unaccustomed feeling of…pity, washed over him. He shook his head, not wanting to feel compassion for the bastard – he didn't deserve it – but….

If someone didn't do something he was going to die – did he really want his father to die? Squeezing his eyes shut, he realized the truth – whatever he had been over the years, this was still his father. The feeling strengthened…he needed to act or it would be too late; this was serious, perhaps for once one of them could behave like a man and to hell with any consequences.

Straightening, Joey put his hands in his pockets, agitated and wondering what to do. He ran his hands over the thick block of money. There was a load in there, more than he had ever had before, probably enough to support his dad for a whole year. Abruptly he came to a decision and turned towards the door - there was no other way, he would just have to humble himself to Kaiba and ask for time to pay him back.

"Roland, start the limo. Where's the nearest rehab clinic?"

"About twenty miles from here, but-" Roland attempted to protest.

"Please help me Roland. I need to take my dad there." For a moment Roland almost seemed to relent, moved by the worry in Joey's eyes, but he continued reluctantly.

"What about buying a suit? Mr Kaiba specifically requested that you obtain a suitable tuxedo for his Mr Von Schroeder's dinner party tomorrow."

"Well rich-boy'll just have to deal with the disappointment. "

He turned away, but not before he saw Roland frantically reach for his phone, no doubt to call Kaiba. He sighed, a painful guilt stirring in his stomach. He didn't enjoy taking advantage of Kaiba like this, but as he gave an agonized look towards his dad, he realized he had no other choice.

"Dad, this is for you."

Briefly he closed his eyes, before walking over to where the large man was laid on the floor. Carefully he lifted his dads arm over his shoulder and with some effort, guided him gently to the car.

* * *

Kaiba had just received a call from Roland, informing him that Joey had taken the money given to him to spend on a suit and had instead used it to check his dad into the Tokyo rehabilitation center.

For a second, Kaiba wanted to get angry, he wanted to clench his fists and scream that it was a total waste of money.

But he didn't. Instead he grabbed his wallet, put on his coat and walked out the door.

* * *

"I promise I'll pay you back, every cent…I have to ask you for some time…and I'm sorry…," Joey hung his head, ashamed as he waited for Kaiba to erupt.

"I don't care," Kaiba responded tersely, not looking up from his laptop.

"Eh." Joey stared at the bent head, wondering if he had heard correctly.

"And here I thought dogs were supposed to have a heightened sense of hearing. I said _I don't care_. You can do what you like with your crummy family. It's no business of mine."

"But what about the money…," Kaiba just shrugged and continued typing, his blue eyes remaining fixed on the screen in front of him.

"Sometimes I just don't get you," Joey muttered as he walked into his bedroom. He stopped abruptly as an unexpected sight met his eyes…

The fabric was rich and dark, the jacket double-breasted with bold shoulders and lapels that tapered in an inverted triangle of black satin. It was pressed and fitted together in such a way that Joey was certain it must have been hand tailored. Kaiba had bought him a suit…a really, _really_ nice suit.

Picking it up, he walked back into Kaiba's office.

"What's this?"

"It's a suit."

Joey rolled his eyes. "I know it's a suit… why'd ya get it for me?"

"You spent the money I gave you to buy a suit, so I went out and bought you one," Kaiba replied airily. "Roland emailed me the measurements we took this morning over the phone. It should be a comfortable fit."

Joey looked up at him in astonishment, trying to read his eyes, "but I thought you'd be-"

"If you don't like it, I'll give you the money and you can buy a new one." Kaiba interrupted.

"No! It's…great."

Joey held it against himself and stroked the fabric wonderingly. He had never been given a present like _this_ before, had never even owned a_ new_ suit, let alone one like this.

Kaiba shrugged, feigning indifference and went back to his work, but from the corner of his eyes he watched Joey flush with pleasure at the gift he'd been given.

Eager to try it on Joey turned towards his bedroom, but then hesitated, "Kaiba?"

"What?" This time their eyes locked.

"Thank you." Joey smiled, his brown eyes warm with gratitude, "For everything."

Kaiba groaned dismissively, making it incredibly plain how bored he was with this conversation. Without a word he packed up his laptop and carried it stiffly into his bedroom. Only once out of sight did he finally answer Joey.

He leant against the door, shutting his eyes tightly and gently whispered, "You're welcome."

* * *

Bakura realized he'd have to tell Ryou the truth soon. It was going to be difficult; despite himself he had come to enjoy Ryou's soft smiles and warm glances.

Ryou had an uncommonly gentle and sweet disposition and even though he didn't show it, Bakura appreciated the younger man's care. Sometimes he wondered – was it really true that he didn't want to be with Ryou, or was it that he knew didn't deserve to be?

He was too tired, too fucked up and too hollow to think clearly, his exhausted mind going over and over the same ground but finding no solutions. He needed to focus on saving Marik. He didn't and couldn't have room to care for anyone else.

Mulling this over, he stared down at the meal Ryou had prepared for him, he recognized the dish as chicken soup. Slowly, he lowered his spoon into the bowl, filling it with a small amount of soup and bringing it up to his lips. It was warm and filling, delicately seasoned with salt and parsley and it tasted great. He smiled.

"This is pretty good."

"It was my mum's recipe. She used to make it for me when I was sick." Ryou murmured from the back of the kitchen.

"Give her my compliments."

"She's dead."

Bakura looked up; Ryou was standing motionless, his face pale and his eyes downcast. "My mother and my sister, they both died in a car crash..."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm sure she'd appreciate the compliment." Ryou tried to smile, but Bakura could see his shoulders shaking and how he tipped his head forward to cover his eyes with hair. Slowly Bakura put down his spoon and walked over to where Ryou was standing. Gently he wrapped his arms around his waist - holding him tightly. Ryou turned to face him, trying to desperately to blink the tears from his eyes, before burying his face deep into Bakura's chest.

It was then… listening to the younger man's haggard sobs that he realized Ryou was just as broken as he was. He placed a gentle kiss on his forehead.

Perhaps Ryou did need him after all.

* * *

**AN: I hope that was an enjoyable chapter. It was really hard to write, but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. **

**A huuuuggge thank you to: yamiXyugi-setoXjou-4ever, Rabbit Pie, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, Yami's Devil, Yue Arisato, cocobyrd87, Darker Clouds, wordsmithie, Ray-Kat-Hollows, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Doragon-chan, Pharaoh Silver, Zambino, iNsAnE nO bAkA, TimeAndRhythmDoesIndeedSleep , Amaris the Dark Mage, EvilMidget6, Begecko-chan, Shadow Realm Triforce, EgyptsBlackRose and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**Also another massive thank you to my beta reader: EvilMidget6, who's patience with me this week is award-worthy. **

**Review for a private- all expenses paid- star gazing session with Yami!**


	13. Yugi Mutou and the Half Covered Bollock

**AN: Once again I'd like to thank everyone for their amazing reviews. Literally I love you all. Consider this my official virtual proposal of marriage!**

**This is the chapter where Yugi wears 'the beast' to the beach! Enjoy!**

* * *

Yugi smiled, it was the day he had been waiting for since they arrived. The class was finally going to the beach, which to Yugi meant only one thing. He could finally release 'the beast in bondage.'

He shimmied into it gleefully, there was no way anything Yami wore could outshine him now and he was positive that once he got to the beach, all eyes would be on him. He even left the hotel a little later than everyone else; wanting to make sure he made a grand entrance. Any doubt that crossed his mind about wearing a sparkly leather thong to the beach was smothered, as he assured himself that he had left the shy boy he used to be back in domino and he was ready to start his new life as a sex symbol.

Unfortunately for Yugi , being 'one size fits all' the beast was still a little too big for him, which meant he had to keep yanking it further and further up his ass crack, to prevent it from falling down. This created two problems, the first being that the back of the swimming trunks was now buried so far into his arse, that it looked like he was storing treasure in it. The second was that in doing this, whilst still concealing the most important 'piece of equipment,' the front of the material was pulled up too high and one of his testicles had popped out the front and was now bouncing along underneath his towel. In any other situation Yugi might have noticed this, but he was too busy thinking about how impressed Tea was going to be once he shed his towel.

At one point on the way there he had dropped his sun cream and had to let go of the towel to pick it up. A shrill scream was heard from an old woman across the road. 'Wow,' Thought Yugi, 'I knew I looked good, but I had no idea it would have _this _effect.' With a new found confidence he winked at the woman, before he slowly (and to his mind tantalisingly) slid the towel back over his spiked crotch and carried on; now strutting down the road towards the beach.

On the way there he imagined all sorts of different situations; he would throw his towel off revealing 'the beast' in all its glory. Tea would gasp (maybe even faint) at his sheer manliness, he'd walk over, deliver some killer line, and all the other girls would comment how he was the sexiest person they'd ever seen - WAY sexier than professor Yami. He and Tea would then walk off into the sunset together, actually she'd carry him…he wasn't sure why.

This newfound source of confidence was short lived however, because upon actually reaching the beach his eyes met with a nasty shock.

"Oh God." He did a double-take. "Oh God no."

Everyone else – even Professor Yami - was wearing normal swimming trunks.

Whatever strange leather ensemble he had been expecting Professor Yami to wear, had been replaced by purple nylon. Perhaps a little more tight-fitting than the other boys in the class (not that any of the girls seemed to mind, the girl he was currently talking to had met his eyes only once) but essentially normal swim trunks.

And Yugi had a chain of rhinestone down his ass.

All at once the reality of what he was actually wearing set in. Suddenly his plan didn't seem so full-proof, or so good. Glad no one had noticed him yet, he slowly began to walk away from the beach, taking refuge in a near-by café and resolving to stay there until he figured out exactly what he was going to do.

He couldn't go to the beach now, not dressed like this. Initially his plan had been to outshine Yami and whatever girl-bait leather ensemble he was wearing, but upon discovery that the elder man was wearing something normal for once, he now realised he looked like a tropical bondage slave.

Swallowing nervously, he peeked under his towel, double-checking that the 'beast' was really as outlandish as he remembered.

Yugi froze, not only was it somehow worse than when he had last looked. But his left bollock was dangling out the side. Yugi suddenly felt ill remembering that old woman's reaction.

Even more mortified than he had been previously, Yugi resolved to go back to the hotel, lock himself in his room and never come out. He was just about to leave when -

"Are you okay Yugi, you seem a little on edge." A cool hand touched his shoulder, causing him to jump with fright. He scrambled for his towel but it was too late and when he looked round, to see who it was.

It was Professor Yami.

"I thought you seemed a little nervous walking onto the beach and followed you here to see if something was wron….oh my!" The Professors eyes widened. Yugi felt a hot flush run through his body, as if each nerve had been wired up to an electrical current. He stumbled backwards, his mouth hanging open, as he watched Yami's eyes study him.

Without removing his stare, Yami took a step forward, his body now almost touching Yugi, who felt himself become breathless at the proximity. ..but when he met Yugi's wide eyes, his own were sympathetic.

"There's a changing room nearby and I bought a spare pair of trunks with me just in case anyone forgot theirs. Would you like to borrow them?"

"Yes please!"

"They're a little tight on me so hopefully they'll fit you." Yami continued earnestly. Yugi looked at Yami's current trunks, it would be fair to say that they left very little to the imagination and he absentmindedly he wondered what 'a little tight' must be like.

He soon found out.

They were blue-speedo type things,

Yugi was fairly certain he would look like a 1970's porn-star, but resolved to wear them anyway, they were better than 'the beast.'

Some minutes later…

Changing into them had been a slightly awkward process; Yugi had felt a little nervous about getting changed so close to his Professor. Even when he politely averted his eyes, choosing to become suddenly very interested in the ceiling, Yugi couldn't shake the uncomfortably tense feeling that had overcome him – every inch of his skin was aware of Yami's presence.

As they made their way back onto the hot white sand, they were both met with a sea of questioning eyes and Yugi was certain he heard more than a few sniggers at the dark blue budgie-smugglers. They also kept his package so upright, he was certain his penis would start to think it could defy-gravity.

He was relieved when he heard a deep voice from behind him break the silence. "Yugi found a hole in his swimming trunks, so I have allowed him to borrow mine." He gave Yugi an encouraging smile, which it turned out was not unfounded for as soon as he had finished speaking an entire crowd of girls began running towards him.

"These are yours?"

"Wow, they're so stylish."

"Yea, Professor you have such good fashion-sense,"

"They make even _Yugi _look manly!"

Yugi flushed with pleasure, Tea said he looked manly! He looked up and gave the Professor a blinding smile, Yami blinked before returning it, coupled with an encouraging thumbs up.

It was a quite a while before all the attention Yugi was receiving died down but eventually Professor Yami suggested that they all go into the water for a while. The girls all sprinted down to the ocean and Yugi tried to follow, but failed on account of his small legs. Soon his sprint turned into a half-hearted jog and then to walking and it was unsurprising that Professor Yami who had also chosen to walk and had much longer legs, soon appeared beside him.

"I just wanted to say, off the record…" He whispered softly, "I actually thought the trunks looked quite good…"

* * *

"If you hate this Zigfried guy so much, how come we're going to dinner with him?" Joey inquired letting out a noise of frustration as he unsuccessfully attempted to do up his tie in the mirror.

"He wants to show off his new virtual technology. Maximillion Pegasus, the man who distributes our duel-monsters video-game, is creating a card game based upon it. To make the game more interesting and unique,he's going to use holograms that make the monsters on the cards come to life." Kaiba had been ready for a full twenty minutes and was now standing with arms crossed and a look of impatience fixed upon his face as he watched Joey fail once again to successfully knot his tie. "As the two leading companies that produce the content of the duel-monsters franchise, there is naturally some competition between us to make the best holograms possible. It is likely that he'll only chose one of our companies to provide the technology for this new game.

"And this has what to do with us going to a fancy-shmancy dinner with some German guy?" Joey threw his tie to the floor, picking it up hastily as he noticed Kaiba's eyes darken. He remembered that it was probably expensive.

"Knowing my enemy."

"Little bit worried about the competition are we?"

Kaiba responded with a derisive snort, "Don't be ridiculous Wheeler." He sounded confident, although Joey couldn't help but notice Kaiba's body was even more tense than usual, if that was possible.

Joey had already seen Kaiba's holograms, they had been shown them to him last night under the premise of 'If we're going to continue doing this, you'd better have some idea of what I do' and he had to admit that he'd been impressed. The model he'd been shown was of two dragons, one large graceful and white, blue eyes fused with an almost magnetic power, it had flown through the sky blasting electric balls of bright lightning. The second, Kaiba informed him had been made a little more recently, he said he couldn't remember what inspired him to create it, but the result was a black dragon. It was bigger than the other and more muscular. Although it was heavier in flight and slower in movement, each powerful flap of its wings was forged with a brute strength. Joey decided he definitely preferred this dragon and he watched entranced as a long shiver ran down the creature's neck and it released three balls of red fire into the air. The two dragons flew around for a while, blasting balls of fire and lightning at each other playfully, before perching atop Kaiba's mansion. Joey was surprised to find see the large dark dragon nuzzle into the neck of the white one.

Joey was so immersed in his thoughts that he was only roused from them by a stern, impatient voice, "For goodness sake do up your tie, we're late enough as is."

"I'm tryin'," Joey fumbled with it, letting out a frustrated groan as he failed once again to produce a suitable knot.

"Come here then." Sighing, Kaiba beckoned him forward.

"You serious?"

Kaiba just rolled his eyes in response, "Before I change my mind."

A silence fell upon the room as Kaiba ran his hands awkwardly over Joey's neck picking up both ends and draping it carefully. The object of his attentions remained looking straight ahead, an almost breathless stillness overcoming him. Kaiba's movements were so smooth and fluid and Joey had to admit the feel of his hands running gently over his shoulders as he adjusted the tie was far from unpleasant. Unconsciously he grazed his thumb over the palm of his own hand, the rough patches of skin hardened from his gang-days and wondered if his own touch would feel so pleasing to another.

"You're right, that was challenging." Kaiba ended sarcastically, finally straightening the tie to his satisfaction. He scrutinized it carefully and then fastened it firmly in place with a tie-pin.

Finally they were ready to leave.

* * *

The helicopter journey was breath-taking and Joey was content just to watch the scenery pass by as he ignored Kaiba's scathing comment about dogs wanting to stick their heads out the window. Slowly the bright lights of the city transformed into endless stretches of fields and trees and then a long stretch of ocean.

The pale light of an almost full moon reflected from the surface, lighting the crests of the waves below. After a while, this silvery landscape altered again as shore gave way to woodland and twinkling lights could be seen ahead; as these grew closer Joey suddenly realized what he was seeing…a pink castle?

"Mr Kaiba, we will be arriving at the home of Mr Zigfried shortly. If you have not already done so, please refasten your seat-belts and prepare for landing."

"He lives in a castle? You're shitting me!"

It was huge, maybe even bigger than Kaiba's mansion. There were several turrets and Joey inwardly likened it to a life-size version of the toy Disney castle that Serenity had played with as a little girl.

Against one of the pink brick walls stood a young man, he was dressed in a well-fitting purple suit and had a smug smirk that gave the impression of enormous self-satisfaction. He was also posing in a contrived way with the intention of seeming nonchalant and relaxed, twirling a strand of pink hair and gazing unblinkingly at the arrivals. Zigfried obviously thought he looked very intimidating.

Joey thought he looked like a Barbie doll.

"Herr Kaiba! How good of you to come," Zigfried purred, clasping his hands together as he approached them.

"Spare me the pleasantries," Kaiba spat, ignoring Zigfried's outstretched hand.

'I wonder why he hates this guy so much?' Thought Joey, who stood - uncomfortably shuffling his feet at Kaiba's side.

"And how's the little mongrel, what is his name? Mokuba I think –" Zigfreid threw the words out with malicious glee and Kaiba's lips pursed with suppressed fury.

'Oh, that's why.'

"Ahh and this must be Joseph," He leant forward to greet him, his manner unmistakably condescending. Joey noted that Zigfried had refrained from using his last name. Before he had a chance to answer Kaiba had already stepped in front of him.

"Zigfried, I thought those fancy finishing schools would have taught you to address your betters by their surnames," despite the cold tone, his words were lined with an unmistakable ferocity. Joey wasn't sure how Zigfried stayed so calm; if Kaiba ever spoke to him like that - he would run a mile.

"Oh Herr Kaiba how like you, always so formal and _unpleasant," _Zigfried laughed affectedly as if he had just told some marvelous joke. Kaiba just sneered in response, before turning abruptly and marching inside. Zigfried let out another affected laugh, and gestured elaborately for Joey to follow suit.

* * *

The dining room was brightly lit and was adorned with several large gold pots that were overflowing with wild flowers. A profusion of blossoming vines ran up the walls and along the ceiling and these had been carefully arranged so that the stems twined around each other to form a large semi-circle and create the look of an orchard. At the centre of the room was a long wooden table, draped in a light pink cloth and on it lay several long lines of silverware.

Upon sitting down Joey groaned, there had to be at least eight different spoons…did it make any difference which one he used first?

At the silvery tinkle of a bell, the guests were informed that the first meal was about to be served. Joey wondered idly if Zigfried really needed this many maids to serve his food, after he watched five of them carry Zigfried's napkin to him as if it were a glass coffin.

He was thankful when he received his food, if there was one thing that he knew he was good at, it was eating. However, to his astonishment, the meal placed before him was nothing more than a small bowl, with an upturned wedge of lemon floating on the top of it.

'Ya'd think rich folks like Zigfried would be able to afford something more substantial.' Joey thought, poking the lemon with his finger. Still, he didn't want to embarrass Kaiba, so he resolved to grit his teeth and try and eat the lemon-soup. Carefully he lifted the smallest of the many spoons and brought a small amount of the soup to his lips.

"No, no Joseph," Came a plummy voice from the head of the table. It was Zigfried who now leant over to waggle a condescending finger at him, "that is not soup; it is to wash your hands!"

Joey felt himself go red, and he quickly dropped the spoon, it fell into the centre of his bowl -splashing the water which landed with a cold splash, straight onto his crotch.

"Oh Herr Kaiba, wherever did you find this one?" Zigfried laughed, his eyes fixed upon Joey. Kaiba said nothing, only turning to Joey with a stern look of displeasure.

As Joey had learnt over and over again, nothing in his life was ever easy and so when the first actual food came around he managed to embarrass Kaiba once again by asking for Ketchup.

"Ah, but of course! A young man of _your_ background couldn't be expected to have tasted Blanquette de Veau." Zigfried spoke as if all his Christmas's had come early and all his presents had been delivered by a naked Pamela Anderson.

After another six courses, each which passed with its' own brand of public humiliation, it was finally time for Zigfried to show off his holograms. He had the projector set up in the dining room, which must have been prepared especially because when the lights were switched off, the orchard-like arrangement of Zifried's wild flowers began to glow incandescently.

Suddenly there was a loud bang and in rode several women on white horses, each wearing only a Viking hat and solid gold bikini but wielding a bow and arrow.

Joey later found out these were called Valkyries.

They were fairly impressive, but somewhat cartoonish and every now and then there would be a crackle of white pixel that disrupted the fluidity of the movement.

His eyes swivelled to Kaiba, who sat with his arms crossed, unable to supress a superior smirk.

Joey smiled, Kaiba's holograms were _way_ better.

Attention completely focused on the dancing horses in front of them, neither noticed Zigfried give a brief hand signal to one of his maids. She immediately walked forward towards Joey saying, "Can I top up your drink sir?" Before 'tripping' and spilling it…all down the front of his beloved new suit. Joey let out a gasp as the beautiful gift was spattered with dark red wine. He dabbed hopelessly at the spreading stain, but his efforts were of no use.

"Oh Herr Kaiba, your boyfriend is _so_ clumsy!" Zigfried let out an exaggerated wail but Kaiba just looked at him, his eyes narrowing. Something wasn't right about this. "Still, as you are both my guests. You must allow me to pay for the suit." Kaiba's face contorted in a way that suggested he wouldn't allow Zigfried to continue breathing if he were given the choice. "Come Joseph; let me help you to get cleaned up." And before he could protest, Joey was taken by the hand as two of Zigfried's maids pulled him up and out of the room.

Hastily murmuring, "I'm sure you'll excuse me for a moment Herr Kaiba. What type of host would I be if I left Joseph to attend to himself." Zigfried followed them through the nearby doorway.

This room was nowhere near as large as the dining room, although it wasn't any less fancy. Everything in it seemed to be rose themed, from fuchsia wallpaper which was patterned with roses twisting in and out of each other, right down to the large king size bed in the middle. To Joey's surprise, the maids that had led him there, immediately left and were instead replaced by Zigfried, who slinked in and draped himself in a leisurely manner on the bed.

"You must be very special for Herr Kaiba to have singled you out. As far as I am aware he has always had a strict policy about not mixing business with pleasure." He leant confidingly towards Joey, "But you know how it is for us millionaires. We'll play with you for a while, but old toys getting boring so fast."

Joey turned away as Zigfried rose and moved forward, continuing to mock him in a smarmy sing-song voice, "They've dressed you up haven't they? But I'm sure beneath all that pomp and silk, you're still just a dirty boy really…" He smirked, his body now uncomfortably close to Joey's, "Now, let's help get you out of those clothes!" As he said this, he squeezed Joey suggestively…

…on the bottom.

Squealing in a far more feminine manner than he would have liked to admit, Joey spun around, his face flushing a deep pink. Enough was enough.

He punched Zigfried in the face.

* * *

Kaiba growled. 'Why was Joey taking so long?'

His spine stiffened as he considered, Zigfried might not be gay, but he sure wouldn't miss any opportunity to try and get one over on Kaiba. It was one of the things that had stopped him ever having a partner before, even a pretend one such as this.

It was a lesson Gozuboro had taught him at a young age; '_A man's greatest weakness is his heart._ _Love is power, only weaklings succumb to it; use it to control people or other people will use it to control you.' _

It was a principle that Gozaburo had taken great pleasure in reminding him of across the years. He used Mokuba's safety as leverage to force Kaiba to design weapons for him and Kaiba learnt quickly to confide in no-one. Should he do so…for instance to one of the housemaids when he was struggling with Gozuboro's 'assignments,' he would without fail wake up the next day to find his workload had been doubled.

Eventually he had learnt to rely on no-one. People all desired the upper-hand; they were motivated by power, greed and little else.

Whilst he resented his step-father, he knew it was these principles that had made him strong and Mokuba was the only exception he had ever made to this rule.

All other love was _weakness._

So even if he had wanted to trust that Joey wouldn't betray him, that he would never accept a bribe from Zigfried to go along with some scheme…Kaiba's past had taught him that to have faith in others always resulted in pain and humiliation.

His paranoia rising, Kaiba finally stood from his chair; "What the hell are they doing in there!"

His frustration overcoming him, he stalked to the door and jerked it open…

There stood Joey, an almost feral look of anger on his face and his fist just inches away from Zigfried - who was whimpering and clutching his face…his nose streaming with blood.

"That brute attacked me!" He accused venomously, pointing his finger at a still shaking Joey.

"I couldn't let him go on insulting you like that!" A cold rush of uncertainty dropped to the pit of Kaiba's stomach. Joey had defended him?

"And besides…he pinched my ass!"

"Lies," Spat Zigfried, "I would never soil myself by touching someone like him," unfortunately the conviction of his words was betrayed by the vividly ashamed blush that spread across his cheeks.

Straightening up, Kaiba smirked. He swung an arm round Joey's waist and although he tensed, Joey didn't resist Kaiba's embrace.

"You shouldn't touch what you could _never_ afford," Kaiba remarked contemptuously, as the two left the cowering Zigfried behind.

* * *

Duke Devlin told himself that he'd never fall in love. Sure he'd stepped in a few times. What man didn't have a weakness for the smile of a pretty girl, or the strong hands of a handsome man?

But an actual emotional connection - no, he'd never felt an all-consuming longing for anyone. The kind that might make you lay down your life for another person…that just wasn't him.

He liked physical comforts, took pleasure when it came and was grateful for it. This was a philosophy that had served him well.

The closest he'd ever come was with Serenity, but even that had been tainted by the thrill of competition, his initial attraction to her fuelled by the prospect of outdoing his rival. He laughed to himself - that had been the first time he'd actually met Tristan. Where Duke had tried to ply her with nice clothes and expensive jewellery, Tristan had got drunk, stood outside her window at night and belted out off-key West Life songs.

Yet in the end, she hadn't wanted either of them.

Later on in the year, when the ordeal was over and the three had established themselves as friends, the question had been put to Serenity. If she'd HAD to pick, who she would have chosen? To his utmost surprise she didn't miss a beat before declaring it would have been Tristan. This information had been hard to swallow and had wedged a large crack in Duke's comfortable reality, where his penis was a magic wand, capable of luring any man or woman into his bedroom. But no, he had been outdone by Tristan.

He scowled, the memory still agitated him. 'Honestly' he thought, 'how could anybody be attracted to Tristan? The man who genuinely tried to pick up girls by asking if he could 'pork' them.

When further questioned about this, Serenity had proclaimed that she preferred Tristan because he was genuine. Genuine? Pff. What sentimental bullshit was that? If Serenity had just allowed them to do a swim-suit round in that competition like he had suggested, then he was sure she would have forgotten about Tristan's 'genuine personality' and changed her primary mating concern to the content of his tight swimming trunks.

He paused, remembering Tristan's body. It sure had been _nice. Really nice._ Nice to the point that Duke had found his mind, casually straying to play re-runs of Tristan fixing the car over the past few days.

The only difference had been that unlike in reality, where Tristan had complained about having a sweaty butt-crack before driving them both to the hospital so he could get his anus examined.

In the daydream version, Tristan walked in slow motion towards Duke, pouring water over his taut abs whilst Barry White began to play on the car stereo.

He was also fairly certain that the real life situation hadn't ended in him being ravaged on the bonnet of a car.

Maybe he should just fuck Tristan again…get it out of his system. He sighed 'would Tristan even agree to that?' Sure he said he was straight, but he'd had had 'straight' guys before and besides, even Tristan couldn't deny that he _was_very pretty (sometimes when he looked in the mirror, Duke got lost in his own eyes). Hell, hadn't Tristan wake up the other morning with an aching ass, courtesy of him? If anything he should be grateful for the offer…

At that very moment Tristan walked through the bedroom door. He was wearing a short lilac dressing gown and bunny slippers that were so large and fluffy that Duke would have been ready to believe that that they were composed of live rabbits.

"Hey Duke!" Duke didn't answer, instead his eyes wandered to the silky purple dressing gown, skimming across Tristan's tanned thighs.

"What? This? Tea bought a new wardrobe for her trip to Egypt, so I decided I would have this. I reckon I can carry it off." He spun around to show it off from all angles, "looks pretty good huh?" A blush rose to Duke's face. Tristan was clearly unaware that a slip of muscular bum cheek was peeking out from below the hem at the back.

"What these? Oh I've always had these; I've just never had anything to wear them with before."

Duke looked up at the sky. He had never been a praying man, but at this rate he figured that he had little choice. 'Please,' he began mentally, 'please don't let me be attracted to him,' he gestured to Tristan, who was still spinning gleefully, smooth butt cheeks bouncing in pride at his new acquisition.

Duke couldn't take his eyes off of him.

Desperately he began to rationalise the situation, trying to comfort himself with the idea that this attraction he felt towards Tristan was momentary. It had been around two weeks since he'd last had sex and for him that was a long time. It was like when people hallucinated or saw mirages in the desert, Tristan's hotness had only been amplified because he wasn't getting laid. He longed for the days when he was so bow-legged he couldn't stop a pig in a doorway and raked an agitated hand through his hair. Duke tried to convince himself that all it would take was one good shag and Tristan would be back to the bumbling loser he knew, teased and was frequently annoyed by.

Because if there was one thing Duke Devlin was certain of, it was that he would never fall in love.

"Hey Duke, I just had a great idea! How 'bout we hit the town tonight?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "pork some veg!"

…And especially not with Tristan.

* * *

Aside from the light, a harsh sterile white, the room had the intimidating look of a prison. Metal bars screwed tightly into a hard concrete door and the floor was bare except for the small bed to which he was fastened by four metal chains. A thick handkerchief clogged his mouth causing his jaw to knot, and his nostrils flared as he desperately tried to suck in air, hot and greasy through the cotton.

His last action of rebellion hadn't gone unpunished. After biting his tongue the doctors had classified him as a danger to himself. The little freedom the previous cell had allowed him; the freedom of movement - had been stripped from him. He was under constant surveillance in case he should commit another 'suicide attempt,' food was brought and fed to him by a nurse once a day and his only other contact was to check his physical condition. To ensure he remained sedated enough, until Serenity was back 'to fix him'. His sleep was now timed, and he was brought in and out of it by the careful dosage of several knock-out drugs, these had the side-effect of leaving him woozy and almost sick with exhaustion during the day.

They couldn't wait to tell him the great news. Serenity's eyesight was going to be saved, in a few days she would be back with him and how happy they told him he should be, that she was prepared to continue his treatment.

He tried to stifle a sob, but it ripped out of him as he jerked helplessly in the tight leather straps which bound him.

_We can escape Marik. _

The whisper wasn't sinister anymore, not like it had been in the past. It was comforting and the words filled his body with intangible warmth.

_Together, we could break away from this prison. We could punish the ones who made you like this._

It was as if two arms had wrapped around him, longing to make him feel safe. He resisted, trying to break free of the allure. 'Bakura will save me.'

_Bakura? Bakura's abandoned you. He doesn't care, not now he has that pretty white haired boy to look after. _

'He promised.'

_He lied. _

Once again he felt that warmth, rocking him into a drowsy state of bliss.

_Everyone's gone Marik. They've abandoned you. _

_I'm all that's left._

It was if he was floating on a cloud, as if all his troubles were flowing out of him, one by one.

_That's better isn't it?_

He was just about to nod his head in agreement, when he heard voices outside the cell door.

"I heard that white haired boy tried to break in again."

"We've called in the police to increase the security level. He tries anything again, they'll catch him."

With his last ounce of strength Marik jerked his head violently, smashing it against the side of the bed.

All the pleasurable sensations he had been feeling were replaced with a cold emptiness and the smell of blood now ran quick in the air.

Marik, shut his eyes. He couldn't hold on much longer.

* * *

He knew Bakura didn't feel the same about him.

Outside of sex he didn't really pay that much attention to Ryou. He spent most of his days slaving over books and making phone calls, trying to find some legal way to have Marik released back into his custody.

Ryou was just a shadow. He kept the apartment clean and cooked. Sometimes he'd offer his help, to read through some legal books or see if there was anyway Bakura could obtain a state-funded lawyer. His offers were always swiftly dismissed.

Things had gotten a little better recently. Bakura made an effort to smile at him when they passed each other in the house and would at least taste the food before pushing it away. But when it really came down to it, Ryou was still just a _release._ Each dark growl, every shaking touch, all the aggressive kisses and hot desperate thrusts, that was Bakura's way of escaping.

There was nothing more to it. Ryou had seen it in his eyes. Dark, glazed over with lust and need, but at the same time empty. When he looked down at him, he might have seen anyone.

Ryou was used to that feeling. Used to being an empty presence. Even with his friends, he felt like a spare part. Sure they gave him a card on his birthday and invited him out with them whenever they went anywhere, hell he lived with Tea and Yugi. But the connection wasn't there. The kind of deep bond that held Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan together, he'd never been able to penetrate it.

Still, at least he actually had friends now.

Moving from school to school as a kid, he had never had time to forge any real bonds and whenever he thought he was close; his dad would move them again. In the end he'd stopped trying and just become accustomed to being alone. He hadn't realised how bad it really was until he'd met the gang. Even if he felt like a parasite in their group, the friendship he had latched onto had helped make him happier than he'd ever been in the past.

This was probably why he continued to pursue whatever it was that he had with Bakura. Ryou's caring nature meant that he would have looked after anyone who needed him, no matter who they were...it was nice to be needed.

But the physical side of it…the way he let Bakura use him as a means to an end….

It had started because just for once he thought he'd been singled out. He would experience what Tea, Yugi, Tristan and Joey felt when they were together, have that unspoken bond of trust and support, be held and cared for. He hadn't realised it would only go one way…and that was starting to become too painful.

But Bakura needed him.

* * *

**A huge candy coated thank you to: Guest, Yami's Devil, TexasDreamer01, Darker Clouds, wordsmithie, vocaliodlover16, naomi, Shadow Realm Triforce, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Magi Magi Magician Gal, Yue Arisato, Ray-Kat-Hollows, iNsAnE nO bAkA, EvilMidget6, Doragon-chan, Amaris the Dark Mage and of course lovemondotrasho (aha, you have a titanic message coming tomorrow XD) – thank all of you for your time and support.**

**Another special thank you to my beta reader: EvilMidget6. Literally you have the patience of a saint and I would like to make you a little alter, light candles and sing hymns about your awesomeness. **

**Review for hot car-sex with Duke!**


	14. Yami Bakura: The Edge of Reason

**Author Note: Hey guys! It has been a busy two weeks for me, in that I've had several university interviews as well as lots of exam preparation. Stress has literally cracked my sanity in two, which I think will soon become apparent from this diary-entry. **

**This is a huge thank you to everyone who has reviewed me and stuck with this story so far! Really hope you all enjoy this bonus chapter! Nearly on 200 reviews, cannot actually believe it! FEEL MY LOVE!**

**Warning: These Diaries are just supposed to be a little fun. They are written to be humorous and therefore are going to be pretty OOC. ****Not really part of the story, more like a fun parody****. If you don't like this sort of thing please feel free to skip ^_^.**

**Vaguely based off Bridget Jones Diary and 'The Very Secret Diaries' by Cassandra Claire. 'The Very Secret Diaries' are great, far better than this heap of shit, so go read them :).**

* * *

**Bakura Diary**

**10:00 AM**

Oh God. What a nightmare. Had scary dream that I entered a beauty pageant and came in last because judges thought my skin glitter was tacky.

On bright-side they did seem to enjoy solid-gold codpiece. Apparently was most disarming in it.

**10:20 AM**

According to dream my codpiece is called Harrington.

More I think about it, more I am warming to Harrington as permanent name for my intimates. Perhaps add 'Professor' to make it a little more dignified. Wouldn't want people to think anatomy was cheap, meaty floosy.

**10: 40 AM**

Professor Harrington it is.

**10.50 AM**

Professor Harrington sounds like the name for a skilled butler, feel is only appropriate as if Ryou's reaction is anything to go by meat muscle can perform lots of services in unique and practical ways.

**11: 00 AM**

Am also going to make the assumption that Harrington is British. I like to think he performs his services like a gentleman.

**11:30 AM**

Stubbed toe on door. Have now begun a vendetta against the door, and shall not stop until my sore toe has been avenged.

**11: 45 AM**

Have destroyed door. Went round house to warn others of its kind that they should be careful if they do not wish to meet the same fate.

**12:00 PM**

Found old red curtain in wash-basket.

**12:10 PM**  
Will not put it round neck and pretend it is cape. Would be v. undignified and childish.

**12:30 PM**

I am the almighty Thief King; fear me and my swishy red cape of doom! MWAHAHAHAH.

**2:30 PM**

Have decided Thief King shall be new nickname. Much sexier nickname than Marik's last girlfriend had. Although apparently 'Nut-Gobbler' lived up to her reputation.

**2:45 PM**

Hmm, wonder if Ryou's into role play?

**3:00 PM**

Ryou not into the idea of calling me 'Almighty Thief-King.' Have told him it would please Harrington, but he is still not convinced. Doesn't matter, will call out my own name.

**3:30 PM**

Audible narcissism did not impress Ryou . Ryou now pouting.

**3:35 PM**

Ryou so cute when he pouts. Like a little lamb or a bunny. Ryou would make an adorable bunny, shall have to call him Mr Floppy from now on.

**3: 50 PM**

Ryou not happy. Took Mr Floppy as an indication of his sexual prowess.

**4:00 PM**

Will try calling it a 'thrill-drill' to cheer him up.

**4:02 PM**

Motivational nickname has only made things worse.

**4:03 PM**

Apparently 'gristle missile' is just as offensive.

**4:04 PM**

And 'love lance'

**4:05 PM**

Fine-crafted wizards hat didn't work either.

**4:10 PM**

Am clearly not very good at pillow talk. Think will stick to smouldering glare instead.

**5:00 PM**

Must come up with some ingenious scheme to save Marik.

**5:30 PM**

Hmm, could try scowling broodily at staff. That usually gets me what I want.

**5:45 PM**

On second thought, might be bad idea. Cannot look at self moodily in the mirror without urge to remove clothes.

**6:00 PM**

Perhaps should build giant game-board, travel back in time and force hospital staff to engage in dungeons and dragons type role-playing game. Would also make for good opportunity to sport sexy red cape and cackle maniacally. Have filed plan under maybe.

**6:20 PM**

Knocked a photo off of shelf, was just about to seek revenge on it for getting in my way when I noticed the picture.

**6:25 PM**

Me and Marik, eating ice-cream at the beach. He's smiling. I'm smiling…

**6:30 PM**

I miss Marik.

* * *

**AN: ****I hope you all enjoyed that! Be sure to vote in the poll on my profile to let me know who's diary you'd like to see done next!**

**A HUGE CREAM COATED MAGICAL SPARKLE FLAVORED THANK YOU TO: Yami's Devil, dreamer1821, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Doragon-chan, Darker Clouds, Lunarnerdette, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, EgyptsBlackRose, Guest, wordsmithie, Amaris the Dark Mage**

**Shadow Realm Triforce, TexasDreamer01, Zambino, iNsAnE nO bAkA, Yue Arisato…**

**My awesome beta-reader Evilmidget6, her story makes my story seem like a wank down the sink!**

**And an extra-big thank you to lovemondotrasho, who has been really patient with me whilst I have no time to do anything but stress about Uni's and exams! **

**Important notice: I have written a Christmas story that I will be posting next Friday, it's a 'The Big Bang Theory' Raj X Stuart fic called 'Five Sweet Kisses'. So if you guys wanna check it out next week that would be awesome!**


	15. A Tale of Two Kisses

**AN.**

**I realise this chapter has been ages coming out, but stuff in real life has been pretty shit at the moment. First I had huge exams that I had to revise for and so neglected this fic for just a few weeks and then my granddad died and everything's really just been a mess since then.**

**However, things are starting to get better and so I will be continuing this fic, with regular updates once again.**

* * *

"I ain't doing this!"

Less than a week had passed since the whole Zigfried fiasco and already Joey was being forced to prepare for another party. According to Roland, this party was far more important, it wasn't just an excuse for Kaiba and Zigfried to try and piss each other off, this one really meant something_._ It had been stressed to Joey that this time he couldn't make any mistakes, he had to be perfect, everything had to be perfect for Mr Kaiba.

Because this party was being held by Maximillion Pegasus.

Kaiba hated Pegasus, apparently he had tried to take over his company several times, not always completely legally and according to the press he had even tried to use Mokuba as leverage. But he was still the leading distributor and manufacturer of the gaming technology that Kaiba produced and so whether he wanted to or not, Kaiba had to impress him. Joey was pretty sure this wouldn't stop Kaiba being the snide son-of-a-bitch he usually was; he didn't think anyone could stop that. Kaiba would impress Pegasus by showing that he was the best; not just through his technology but by showing Pegasus that he could outperform Zigfried in every single way.

Apparently this included dancing.

Maximillion Pegasus was incredibly eccentric (and camp_, so very_ camp) and so when he held a party, he wanted to be sure that it was spectacular. This year he had chosen to accomplish this by holding a huge ball, a formal ball where all his guests would be inevitably expected to dance. At first Joey thought that there was no way that Kaiba would do this, he would just sit at the side, arms folded grumpily and sneer at all the party-goers, but apparently whilst he was assured by Kaiba this is what he would prefer to do, Pegasus expected them to dance. According to Kaiba, Pegasus was ruthless and he liked to play games, liked to make people jump through hoops. Even if Kaiba's technology was the best, there was a chance he would choose Zigfried just to spite Kaiba if he refused to join in the dancing.

As his partner, this meant Joey would have to learn as well. Not only that, but he would have to get good.

Joey had thought this would mean hours of rigorous training with Roland (that's how he'd had to learn 'table manners' for Zigfrieds dinner party), but to his surprise Kaiba had insisted on teaching Joey himself.

And so they danced.

At first it was hideously embarrassing for Joey, he was clumsy and constantly stumbled into Kaiba, who was naturally far more elegant. He would accidentally stand on his feet, or move the wrong way, breaking through the smooth classical music by cursing violently. Then there was the whole matter of where he as going to put his hands, since he flat out refused to put them on Kaiba's waist and even with his hand now firmly on Kaiba's shoulders, danced the more intimate parts as if Kaiba had an infectious disease.

In this respect, dancing with Kaiba was exactly how Joey had imagined it would be. He was completely and utterly pathetic. Kaiba on the other hand…

Kaiba was behaving differently.

He didn't belittle him, or mock his poor dancing and when Joey missed a step, he smoothly pulled him into the correct one.

But that wasn't all.

Maybe it was just the close proximity, but Joey was sure Kaiba had never stared at him like this before, as intently as he was now. To be honest it was a little unnerving. Kaiba's stare was unmoving, penetrating, his eyes fixed upon Joey's face. Even more unnerving was that a part of Joey actually liked it. He had found that much as he hated Kaiba's jerk-wad superiority, he had come to - not 'like' him exactly, but respect him. Kaiba knew how to get things done and he knew what was important, he looked after Mokuba with the fierceness of a dragon, and that was something Joey could understand, he could get behind that.

They stayed like this for ages, Kaiba slowly guiding him through the dance steps, until Joey was able to stumble through them correctly.

Joey found the whole experience uncomfortable, _painfully _uncomfortable and yet at the same time he didn't want it to end. It was kind of like a trance he thought, where they weren't Kaiba and Joey; who hated each other, who fought incessantly and who actively tried to hurt each other. They were just two people dancing.

But he knew it would be short lived, after this Kaiba would go back to being the same old grouchy asshole he had always been.

Still for now this was nice, just dancing together, hands on each other's shoulders, knee's knocking, bodies brushing softly against each other, heat rising in his ...'oh fuck,' Joey thought in realisation.

He had an erection.

Joey felt his face flush and he quickly tried to readjust his body so that his hips were facing as far away from Kaiba as humanly possible. Unfortunately his attempt failed and instead he ended up grinding his erection along Kaiba's thigh. He bit his lip, trying to force himself to think of something disgusting to try and make it go down before Kaiba noticed and mocked him for it.

'Yugi's grandpa in a speedo, Yugi's grandpa in a speedo, Yugi's grandpa in a speedo,' he tried to force himself to picture it, which should have been fairly easy since he had actually caught the man once, admiring himself in the bedroom mirror. But nothing changed. Kaiba swayed with the music and feeling his thigh rubbing rhythmically against his erection did nothing but increase his arousal, making him _painfully _hard.

The only fortunate thing about this entire situation was that Kaiba didn't seem to notice and was still looking directly ahead.

Joey let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

Joey was hard. Kaiba could feel it.

His analytical eye noticed the blush in his face, the causal readjustment of his position and of course the large bulge that was now pressed hard against his leg.

There was a part of him that wanted to tease Joey, make him painfully aware how pathetic he was to become aroused from just _dancing,_ to ask him why he hadn't been neutered. But he didn't. He thought about it for a while, about why this was. A few days ago he wouldn't have hesitated. But now...

Eventually he realised that he just didn't want to.

It wasn't that he didn't want to tease Joey, things would never change that much. Joey was still an insufferable dolt and sometimes just looking at him irritated Kaiba. But still...he didn't want to hurt him.

As the music slowed, they began to sway; moving against each other and Kaiba could not help but feel Joey rubbing against his leg. He tried to ignore it. He was Seto Kaiba, he was the master of his emotions, not some pre-teen girl fawning over a boy band.

Apparently his body thought differently.

Barely realising what he was doing, he pulled Joey closer to him, and Joey, who for a moment seemed to have forgotten how humiliating he found this, had leant into him, gently resting his head on Kaiba's shoulder. His eyes were shut revealing long dark eye lashes, and as Kaiba watched him absentmindedly moistened his lips, he heard him let out a small sigh.

Over the top of his head, Kaiba allowed himself a small smile.

Later that evening Kaiba would berate himself, wash his face with cold water and pace up and down his room the entire night, trying to deny to himself everything that had happened.

Because at that moment he did nothing. At that moment when Joey was pressed tightly against him, he was exactly where he wanted to be.

* * *

Bakura had tried again to break in again and see Marik.

The previous day, Bakura had gone for a walk to clear his head. It was becoming harder and harder to focus, every day he ate less and slept less than the previous, he yelled more at Ryou, he _hated _himself more. Trying to get Marik out had been insane, he'd had no real plan or idea of how he was going to do it, just a surge of angry emotion, a sudden irrational self-belief.

He was caught nearly straight away.

Well not 'caught', he was seen nearly straight away and had to evacuate the hospital before they grabbed him, but he never got a chance to see Marik.

So once again he came to Ryou, because that's what he always did when he felt like this. He went to Ryou. To be touched, and held and just...to forget.

"No..." Ryou had pushed him away, turning his face away from Bakura when he had approached him. Bakura seemingly didn't hear, he just walked closer, reached out and clutched his arm.

"Please stop! I just – I can't. Not anymore." Bakura heard him this time, because he stopped dead in his tracks.

"What?" Bakura's voice was cold. He clutched Ryou's arm tighter.

"I don't...I can't keep doing this with you." Ryou's voice was little more than a whisper, he took a small pause and tried to shakily close the gap between them, tried to explain. "Bakura I care about you _so much-." _Ryou's face scrunched up as if just talking was physically harming him.

"Then why? Why can't you just give me what I want!" Bakura interrupted angrily.

"Because you don't _care_ about me."

Bakura stopped, pausing for a moment before continuing a little more gently, "You know that's not true."

Ryou shook his head; his whole body was now almost completely hunched over, like his entire being had been crumpled.

"You don't love me."

Bakura's hand weakened.

Bakura knew Ryou felt for him in a way that he could not return, knew that everything they did together Ryou would take in a way that Bakura had never meant for him to, would _never_ mean for him to.

It wasn't like Ryou himself didn't know this. Ryou had begun to have second thoughts about the physical side of their relationship before, for exactly this reason and despite being unable to let go, Bakura sometimes felt like this too. Amongst everything with Marik he had grown to like Ryou, respect him even, and he hated hurting him.

But the other part of him, the part that played Marik's screams over and over in his head, that kept his nights sleepless, that kept him half dead to the world, that let him know he failed. That part wanted Ryou, needed him, needed to escape.

And unfortunately that part _always _won.

So he sometime he lied. Not just verbally, but with his body too. For the first time ever he had been gentle with Ryou, he gave Ryou what he thought he wanted. Soft touches and sweet caresses, looked him in the eyes, tried to make him feel _wanted._

He remembered Ryou's eyes afterwards, bright, hopeful, expectant. He truly believed things had changed. "Haven't you got stuff to do?" That had been Bakura's response. That was how Bakura let him know they hadn't.

Things were never the same after that. Bakura acted like he didn't care, told himself that he didn't have time to think about Ryou's feelings, he had to remained focused on what was truly important. He had to remain focused on Marik. But he couldn't deny that he noticed it, noticed how much Ryou had changed since that day.

If anything, the intensity of his care had only increased, he made himself busy with cleaning or cooking even when there was no reason to be. He looked at Bakura more often too. Sometimes he would just stare at him intently, for what seemed like an eternity, his face so sad. Like he knew, like he knew everything Bakura had done.

At first Bakura tried to ignore it; all the pain, all the guilt, the stomach curdling guilt, the guilt that came from doing this to a person like Ryou, a person who so clearly just wanted to be loved and needed.

Sometimes in his head he tried to rationalise it, tried to tell himself it was Ryou's fault, for allowing him to do this. Ryou knew he didn't love him. He knew! And if you wanted Bakura's opinion, Ryou didn't love him either, it was just a silly infatuation, just Ryou wanting affection. This time Bakura's guilt turned to sharp anger.

"So what?!" He spat. "You don't love me either!"

A silence. Ryou turned around and looked at him for the first time, and that was when Bakura realised he had made a grievous mistake.

"Yes I do."

He let go of Ryou, let his hand drop to the floor as all his anger faded. No guilt replaced it this time, just a silent emptiness inside his body. He saw Ryou's eyes flicker back to him briefly, almost begging for a response.

But he didn't get one. Bakura just turned his back, and he stayed that way until he heard gentle footsteps slowly walk away from him and the door close behind him.

Ryou had left. Bakura remained alone.

* * *

Yugi's night had been shitty. Really shitty. Like Shyamalan's 'Avatar' movie level shitty.

Yugi had tried to ask Tea to be his girlfriend. Well, actually, he had succeeded in asking Tea to be his girlfriend. That was the problem. The entire experience had been hideously humiliating.

Yugi had asked Tea out for dinner and she had accepted, thinking he meant it as a friend. The entire time, Yugi was convinced that he had scored and they were on an actual date. He had tried out all kinds of cheesy lines that she thought was just him messing around (was your father a thief? Cause he stole the stars and put them in your eyes). When in fact, he was deadly serious and mistook her laughing as enthusiasm for his amazingly romantic seduction abilities. But it wasn't until he had tried to kiss her on the way home that things had started to go way downhill.

Firstly because he had in part succeeded. He stood on tiptoes, pretended something was in her eye and then mashed his wet mouth sloppily against her own; waggling his tongue frantically and hoping it was arousing. Tea just stood there frozen in shock -'wow' thought Yugi, 'she must be stunned by my skill!' So he had just continued, doubling the enthusiasm he was showing, his tongue becoming even wilder and messier against her pursed mouth. This carried on for about five seconds before Tea was finally able to force herself to react and slowly pushed him away. Yugi smiled eagerly, thinking she was going to congratulate him on being such a wonderful kisser (in his mind she swooned before crying out 'take me you lovesick stallion').

But as you might imagine, this was not what happened.

Yugi's first kiss ended with the girl on the receiving end bursting into tears, wailing that she was sorry and then running away into the night. He was left standing alone, his saliva drying on his chin.

Just when he thought his night couldn't get any worse, he was met with a deep (although slightly slurred) voice.

"Yugi!" It was professor Yami. Yugi sighed. Having been rejected by the girl he had had a crush on for about nine years, the last person he wanted to see was his professor. His _perfect, _handsome, manly professor that all the girls wanted and who could pull off wearing leather in a way he would never be able to. Groaning slightly Yugi turned to face him.

"Hey Professor, what do you wan-" He was cut off when a pair of strong hands were suddenly on his hips, tugging him closer before lifting him –literally- off of the ground and pulling him roughly forward.

Professor Yami was kissing him.

* * *

Yami didn't usually get drunk. He liked to be in control and hated the thought that anything could lower his inhibitions and make him act 'dishonourably'.

Unfortunately for him, Mana was and always had been - a terrible influence.

Their magic show had been amazing.

Hilarious outfits aside, Mahad and Mana performed excellently, especially their most famous trick which was the finale; the dark magical hats trick. Mahad had hidden underneath one of four giant hats and they invited audience members to throw knives and guess which one. Of course, it was inevitable that someone finally guessed correctly and audience members gasped as the winning hat was replaced with a giant box. The box was then opened to reveal Mahad and the audience applauded, although this applause was short lived when the box was closed again and knives were then fed into its hundreds of tiny slits. Just when the audience was sure there was no way he could possibly escape, Mana opened a new box revealing Mahad completely unharmed. The crowd went wild.

Yami smiled, it was no wonder they were so famous.

He had seen their show many times, although this one had been by far their best. For one thing, the two were so much more cooperative than usual. As good as the show had been before, it wasn't difficult to spot the two occasionally bickering out the corner of their mouths, usually Mahad telling Mana off for having too much 'showmanship' (hitting on audience members) and her laughing at him for being a prude. But not this time, this time they were all smiles and laughter and before Yami could ask them about the reason for this sudden change of heart, they kissed each other hard, before bowing and ending the show.

Mana and Mahad were _finally _together.

Yami smirked; it had taken them long enough.

"I jumped him of course!" Was Mana's explanation when they went for drinks after the show. Mana's bright voice was matter-of-fact. Yami wasn't surprised, they had liked each other for ages, and whilst Yami was sure Mahad had been the first one to figure it out; he had seen the man's attempt at flirting and known that Mana would have to be the one to make the first move.

"Although to be fair Mahad, you weren't exactly resistant." She smiled and whispered in a scandalised tone to Yami, "You wouldn't believe the sort of weird stuff he's into, he wanted me to wear my costume and..."

"That's enough Mana." Mahad spoke in a serious tone, but he was smirking and looked, if Yami was being honest, far too pleased with himself.

"So what about you Yami," she ruffled his spiky hair, "are you seeing anybody?"

Yami hesitated, if he told Mana about Yugi she would never stop teasing him.

"No not at the moment." But it was too late; she noticed his hesitation and pounced on it, now in full interrogation mode.

"Oh, but you want to!"

"Mana leave him alone," Mahad tried to sound sensible, but his suggestion was obviously half hearted as he also looked at Yami expectantly.

"Go on Yami spill the beans!" Mana shook his arm excitedly, and Yami realised he had to surrender or Mana would never give up.

"His name is Yugi. He is a student at the university..."

"Ooh forbidden!" Mana chimed in eagerly.

"Yami teaches at a university Mana. Yugi is an adult. It is perfectly legal." Mahad commented, but Mana apparently ignored his remark because she continued, with even more enthusiasm.

"Oh my god! You guys should totally do it on the teacher's desk!"

Yami would have chastised her for that comment, had he not been too busy enjoying the mental image that it presented.

Noticing Yami's dreamy expression, Mana continued with a devilish expression on her face.

"Does he like you then?"

"I don't know…"

"I bet you scribble his name on your diary."

"Mana..."

"Mr Yami Yugi." She said in a mock-swoon voice.

"His last name's Muto actually." Yami corrected, unable to fight the wry smirk that crept across his face. He had to admit 'Yami Yugi' was actually a pretty cool name.

This teasing continued for a while, with even Mahad joining in at one point, "haha yes Yami! I'm sure it won't be long until you're buying a house, opening a joint account at the bank and copulating." Sadly, nobody laughed at his joke except him and so he went back to huffily telling Mana off for being childish.

Whilst all this was going on, Yami failed to notice the huge quantity of drink that Mana had been ordering for him, drinks that he had knocked back almost absentmindedly. Usually he was more sensible with his drinking, it would normally be him and Mahad who had to take turns carrying Mana home. But he hadn't been able to talk about what he felt for Yugi before, hadn't really allowed himself to consider his feelings in this way and so he forgot all about drinking slowly, happy to finally be able to let go and acknowledge what he really felt for Yugi.

Unfortunately, this meant that he got absolutely hammered.

"He's beautiful!" Yami slurred sometime later, when an equally drunken Mana had convinced him that he _needed _to confess his feelings to Yugi. "Do you think he knows Mana? I hope he knows!"

"You know," Mana assumed a voice of mock concern, "I don't think he does." Yami looked horrified; Mana likened the look to the one he had worn when she spoiled the ending of Harry Potter for him. "I think you need to tell him. _Immediately."_

"You are so right!" He waggled his finger, stumbling towards her. "You know Mana! You and Mahad you have so much _honour_! Seriously you have the most _honour_ of anyone I know and _honour _is so important." It was at this point he started to become seriously emotional, stifling what sounded distinctly like a sob. "Yugi has so much_ honour_! People don't see it but he does, he has so much_. So much_..." He hiccupped, before falling over. Mana cackled like a hyena, but Mahad sighed.

"This is absurd. I will not let you humiliate poor Yami like this any longer." Mahad tried to take his arm, intending to drag him back to the hotel room and force some sense in him. It probably would have worked; but unfortunately it was at this point that Yami spotted Yugi, leaning against a wall and sighing to himself. Batting Mahad's arm away, Yami straightened his back and started towards him with Mana cheering wildly in the background.

"As you wish Yami." Mahad knew he couldn't win. As sensible as Yami was, no one could escape Mana's influence, he smiled briefly, not even himself.

Mana laughed and gave Yami the thumbs up as he walked stiffly, trying to keep his balance, towards what had to be Yugi. She smiled, Yami had mentioned something about Yugi having trouble with a woman, she couldn't understand why, the guy was pretty cute. Like a sweet faced, shorter version of Yami, she made mental note to tease him on being such a narcissist.

"Yugi!" Yami tried not to slur, as he attempted to walk in a straight line towards him. How did Yugi manage to look so _cute;_ all pouty and just so goddamn _delicious._ Yami sighed, reaching out towards Yugi, deciding that if what he was doing was dishonourable, he didn't want to be honourable.

"Hey professor, what do you doing wan-" Mana watched as Yami literally picked Yugi up off of the floor, running his hand up Yugi's back before burying it deeply into his hair, pinning Yugi in place and leaning in to kiss him deeply. The kiss was hard and insistent and through his drunkenness Yami felt a wave of pleasure course through his body and pulled Yugi more tightly towards him, closing any space that was left between their bodies. Then he heard a gasp and for just a second Yugi returned the kiss, pushing desperately into Yami, his hands clutching at the soft fabric of his top.

For just one second everything was wonderful.

But it was only a second, until reason got control again and that was when Yugi pulled away, a look of horror crossing his face.

"I'm sorry. I can't. I don't. Sorry." The silence was like knives, cutting deeply into Yami's body, and he felt queasy as a cold rush of realisation came over him. Any relationship they had might not be straight-out illegal, but Yugi was still his student, he thought about how uncomfortable this would probably make him, he might not even want to come back to class. The guilt was nearly unbearable, but what was more unbearable was the thought that he himself would now have to see Yugi, to go through lessons knowing what he would never have...

He leant forward to apologize but Yugi took a step away from him and no words came out.

Just when Yami didn't think the situation could get any worse, it did. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a tall figure slowly emerge from the shadows, to reveal a red and tearstained face.

The gasp hadn't come from Yugi. It had come from Tea.

* * *

**AN:**

**I really hope that was worth the wait. Like I said, I am really sorry it has taken this long. But stuff's been pretty shit.**

**However, updates should now start to become regular once again! :)**

**Also, if there are any Hetalia fans amongst you I have just started a new story 'Building Castles in the Air' so I would love it if you could go check that out.**

**No side pairings this chapter, because I thought the stuff happening with the main three was so huge. **

**A big thank you to everyone who has been reading my fic and is still reading. An especially big thank you to: Naomi, samaurai, Magi Magi Magician Gal, Darker Clouds, wordsmithie, Amaris the Dark Mage, EgyptsBlackRose, TexasDreamer01, Doragon-chan, Ecila Raveniz Thgilyad, Crazy-Queen-of-Games-In-Secret, iNsAnE nO bAkA, kbomb234, Shadow Realm Triforce, EvilMidget6 (my beautiful beta-reader), Ray-Kat-Hollows and of course lovemondotrasho!**

**For every review given I shall donate money to the national society of kissing lessons, to see if they can help Yugi! **


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